Nuclear Technologies and the Anthropocene

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Nuclear Technologies and the Anthropocene

The "Atoms for Peace" program, announced by President Eisenhower in December 1953 at the United Nations, comprised a global effort to control nuclear energy usage. This program opened up nuclear research at citizens and nations that had not before owned atomic technology. Eisenhower claimed for a non-proliferation treaty globally and contended to a halt of the disseminated of military usage of nuclear weaponries. Eisenhower's initiative fostered several significant elements of the current non-proliferation regime, comprising the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its global structure of safeguards. But this program likewise International triggered nuclear proliferation by making it convenient for some countries to pursue their nuclear weapons ambitions^[1]. The program has been criticized for promoting nuclear proliferation by dispersal duel using atomic technology such as highly enriched uranium, which is utilized in early civilian nuclear programs that can likewise be utilized for nuclear weapons production. Some believe this program set nuclear aspirants such as Iran on the pathway of getting needed technologies and materials for the creation of a nuclear weapons program.

From the 1920s, universities have been engaged in patenting and licensing intellectual property. The passage of the Bayh-Dole law of 1980 left intellectual property in the research institution hands and contributed to the rising technology commercialization created with federal financing. For instance, most of the technology found in current smartphones is the outcome of both federal procurement and research funding. From propelling the semi-conductor revolution to backing small research project on touchscreens at the University of Delaware, the federal financing as assumed a vital role in smartphone development. The microchips development steered the semiconductor revolution and the federal government’s purchasing power helped change the microchips into mass generated, publicly inexpensive, foundational technology.

 Paul Edwards highlight that climate science and nuclear artilleries testing have a long and astounding affiliation. During the Fukushima disaster, for instance, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization traced the radioactive plume stemming from damaged Japanese nuclear reactors through a worldwide airborne radionuclide^[2]. The nuclear war effects on the climate signify the historical connection between climate science and nuclear matters. Without the atomic weaponries, architects and testers work, scientists would become unaware concerning the atmosphere. Without climate models, researchers and political leaders would become unaware of the degree to which nuclear artilleries power to overwhelm humans and other species. Facilities constructed amid the Cold War-like the American labs built for manufacturing weapons presently utilize their dominant supercomputers. the labs also use know-how in modeling, and abilities in overseeing extensive data set to tackle the risk of disastrous climate change^[3].

As argued by Paul Crutzen, we have entered the Anthropocene era because humans have fundamentally transformed the earth's geology and are present in all ecosystems^[4]. Human activities such as deforestation and the use of fossil fuels have raised the earth's temperatures, caused a rise in sea levels, eroded the ozone layer, and began to acidify the oceans.

[1] Chernus, Ira. Eisenhower's atoms for peace (Texas A&M University Press, 2002),15.

[2] Edwards, Paul N. "Entangled histories: Climate science and nuclear weapons research." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 68, no. 4 (2012): 30

[3] Edwards, Paul N. A vast machine: Computer models, climate data, and the politics of global warming. (Mit Press, 2010)191.

[4], Paul, Crutzen. "Geology of mankind." Nature 415, no. 3 (2002), 1.

Ibid, 95.