For most of the world, the non-scientist types with no security clearance, the nuclear

age started with a bang. Two of them, actually. Atomic bombs dropped on cities in Japan to

force an end to World War II. It was a technology like nothing we'd ever seen before, as

historian Richard Rhodes put it, and it proved itself to be, oh my god, the winner of wars.

The horrifying devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrated the destructive capabilities

of nuclear power. Even Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, a man who knew

more about this new technology than just about anyone else, seemed in awe.

I remember the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. Now I am to come death,

the destroyer of worlds. I suppose we all fought that one way or another.

Technological breakthroughs are often double-edged, and vision is perhaps one of the greatest

examples of this. By breaking the atom apart, we learned we could flatten cities and win

wars. But as I mentioned in the last episode, scientists had envisioned the possibility

of harnessing nuclear energy for good, even before they created the bomb.

So now, with the end of the war, even as we continued building atomic weapons at an alarming

pace, scientists, government, military men, and yes, even the public, started thinking

about what else we could do with atomic power. But separating the idea of nuclear energy

from nuclear bombs would prove to be a tricky task. I'm Laura Krants, and this is wild

thing going nuclear, a series about the power of the universe contained in the tiny little

package of the atom. The endless debate over harnessing that power.

And whether we humans are responsible enough to mess with it.

I'll benefit the power of destruction of good or evil.

We'd watched with horror at how atomic energy could be used for destruction. Now we wanted

...