Counting the Costs of the Nuclear Age

America’s NBC radio was suitably dramatic in its report of the atomic bombing

of Hiroshima. ‘Anglo-Saxon science has developed a new explosive 2,000 times

as destructive as any known before’, it announced. The broadcaster went on to

warn that ‘For all we know, we have created a Frankenstein! We must assume that

with the passage of only a little time, an improved form of the new weapon we

use today can be turned against us.’As things turned out, the United States had

indeed created a nuclear monster, which consumed huge amounts of public

resources and quickly grew to threaten the very existence of humanity.

Throughout the Cold War, the true costs and dangers of the nuclear age were

hidden behind a veil of secrecy. However, recent years have seen far greater

access to archival and interview material on this highly sensitive area of national

security. This, in turn, has enabled scholars to construct a far more accurate and

terrifying picture of the dangers faced in the nuclear age. Now with Atomic

audit we also have a better idea of how much it cost: $5.8 trillion for the

American taxpayer alone.