Let us recapture the fervour of the first antinuclear weapons activists
On Aug. 29, 1949 in Kazakhstan at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site at 7 o’clock in the morning, an explosion thundered. This was the first test of nuclear weapons in the USSR. In total, 456 nuclear explosions were conducted at the test site, 116 of which were atmospheric explosions. Experts calculated that the total capacity…
Pugwash movement: how world scientists have stood against nuclear war
In July 1955, eleven internationally renowned scientists signed the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, which laid the foundations of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. The movement’s first conference took place in July 1957 in the village of Pugwash in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. In 1995, the Pugwash Movement was awarded the Nobel Peace…
Historical milestone on the road to nuclear disarmament
On May 22, President of the UN Conference on negotiating a nuclear weapons ban, Ambassador Elayne Whyte of Costa Rica presented a historical draft of the Convention on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Out of the three types of weapons of mass destruction – nuclear, chemical and biological – only nuclear are currently not legally…
