atomic age

 

The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is a phrase typically used to delineate the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear bomb.

The phrase stems from the feeling of nuclear optimism in the 1950s in which it was believed that all power sources in the future would be atomic in nature. The atomic bomb ("A-bomb") would render all conventional explosives obsolete and nuclear power plants would do the same for power sources such as coal and oil. There was a general feeling that everything would use a nuclear power source of some sort. This would render the discovery of nuclear power as significant as the first smelting of Bronze or Iron, or the Industrial Revolution.

This included even cars, leading Ford to display the Ford Nucleon concept car to the public in 1958.

In the 1960s, the term became less common, but the concept remained. In the Thunderbirds TV series, a set of vehicles was presented that were imagined to be completely nuclear, as shown in cutaways presented in their comic-books. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, there was even an atomic ballpoint pen.

Many experts predicted that thanks to the giant nuclear power stations of the near future electricity would soon become much cheaper and that electricity meters would be removed, because power would be "too cheap to meter."^[1]

Lew Kowarski, a former director of CERN, recalled even such references as Atomic cocktail waitresses.

The term was initially used in a positive, futuristic sense, but by the 1960s the threats posed by nuclear weapons had begun to edge out nuclear power as the dominant motif of the atom. In the late 1970s, nuclear power was faced with economic difficulties and widespread public unease, coming to a head in the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, and the Chernobyl reactor explosion in 1986, both of which effectively killed the nuclear power industry for decades thereafter.

As such, the label of the Atomic Age now connotes either a sense of nostalgia or naïveté, and is considered by many to have ended with the fall of the Soviet Union, though the term continues to be used by some historians and some science fiction fans to describe the era following the conclusion of the Second World War.

As of 2007, a resurgence of the Atomic Age appears to be underway, as some advocates of nuclear power suggest that its use could be a solution to global warming. In addition, nations such as China are vastly expanding their nuclear power programs.^[2]

Timeline of the Atomic Age

• 11 October, 1939 — The Einstein-Szilard letter, suggesting that the United States construct an atomic bomb, is delivered to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

• September, 1942 — General Leslie Groves takes charge of the Manhattan Project.

• 2 December, 1942 — The first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction takes place in Chicago, United States, at the Chicago pile - 1.

• 16 July, 1945 — The first atomic bomb is tested near Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States.

• 6 August, 1945 — The atomic bomb is first deployed as a military weapon (by the United States) in the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.

• 1 November, 1952 — The first hydrogen bomb, largely designed by Edward Teller, is tested at Eniwetok Atoll.

• 21 January, 1954 — The first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), is launched into the Thames River near New London, Connecticut, United States.

• 27 June, 1954 — The first nuclear power plant begins operation near Obninsk, USSR.

• 1957 to 1959 — The Soviet Union and the United States both begin deployment of ICBMs.

• 12 October, 1962 to 28 October, 1962 — The Cuban Missile Crisis brings Earth to the brink of nuclear war.

• 10 October, 1963 — The Partial Test Ban Treaty goes into effect, banning above ground nuclear testing.

• 28 March, 1979 — The Three Mile Island accident occurs at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, dampening the enthusiasm of many in the United States for nuclear power.

• 26 April, 1986 — The Chernobyl disaster occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, USSR, reducing the enthusiasm for nuclear power among many people in the world.

• 31 July, 1991 — As the Cold War ends, the Start I treaty is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union, reducing the deployed nuclear warheads of each side to no more than 6,000 each.

• 2006 — Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace and other environmentalists such as Stewart Brand^[3] suggest the deployment of more advanced nuclear power technology for electric power generation such as pebble bed reactors, to combat global warming.

• 21 November, 2006 — Implementation of the ITER fusion power reactor project near Cadarache, France is begun. Construction is to be completed in 2016 with the hope that the research conducted there will allow the introduction of practical commercial fusion power plants by 2050.

The Atomic Age in pop culture

• 5 July, 1946--The bikini swimsuit, named after Bikini Atoll, where an atomic bomb test had taken place a few days earlier, is introduced at a fashion show in Paris.

• 1954--Them!, a science fiction film about humanity's battle with a nest of giant mutant ants, was one of the first of the "nuclear monster" movies.

• 1954—The science fiction film Godzilla is released, about an iconic fictional monster that is gigantic irradiated dinosaur, transformed from the fallout of an H-Bomb test.

• 23 September, 1962--The Jetsons animated TV series begins on ABC, attempting to humorously depict life in the fully developed Atomic Age of 2062.

• 1964—-The film Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (aka Dr. Strangelove) , a black comedy directed by Stanley Kubrick about an accidentally triggered nuclear war, is released.

• 1982--The documentary film The Atomic Cafe, detailing society's attitudes toward the atomic bomb in the early Atomic Age, debuts to widespread acclaim.

• 20 November, 1983--The Day After, an American television movie is aired on the ABC Television Network, and also in the Soviet Union. The film portrays a fictional nuclear war between the United States/NATO and the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact. This film was seen by over 100,000,000 people and was instrumental in greatly increasing public support for the nuclear freeze movement.

• 17 December, 1989--The animated cartoon series The Simpsons debuts on television on the Fox Network, providing a humorous look at the Atomic Age, since the main protagonist, Homer Simpson, is employed as an operator at a nuclear power plant.

• Beginning in the 1990s, Nostalgia stores that specialize in selling modern furniture or artifacts from the 1950s often have included the words Atomic Age as part of the name of or advertising for the store.

• 1999--Blast from the Past is released. It is a romantic comedy film about a nuclear physicist, his wife, and son that enter a well-equipped spacious fallout shelter during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. They do not emerge until 35 years later, in 1997. The film shows their (to us) hilarious reaction to contemporary society.

See also

• Machine Age
• Information Age
• Space Age
• Nuclear weapons in popular culture
• Nuclear electric rocket
• Nuclear program of Iran--the current controversy over Iran's attempt to implement a nuclear power program.
• Googie architecture

References

External links

• Atomic Age Alliance - Volunteer group dedicated to preserving Atomic Age culture and architecture

Donate to Wikimedia