As Hollywood was preparing for the Academy Awards in early March, a publicity campaign that had nothing to do with advocating for a best actor or best cinematography nominee became increasingly visible in Los Angeles. Posters plastered across the city warned that although “[J. Robert] Oppenheimer is history, nuclear weapons are not.”
The campaign advocating for the end of nuclear weapons was the creation of the nonprofit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). Founded in 2001, the nonprofit global security organization focuses on reducing nuclear and biological threats and has increasingly become a voice for nuclear disarmament. Ernest Moniz, a former MIT physics professor and secretary of energy for President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017, is the organization’s CEO.
Moniz spoke with Physics Today a few weeks after the Oscars to discuss the NTI’s nuclear security efforts and the challenges of elucidating the nuclear threat to the public.
PT: How significant...
