Nuclear weapons must be brought under international control and must never be used again. That is an old story now. The Bulletin, which evolved from the Atomic Scientists of Chicago, has been telling it for 50 years. So has the Federation of American Scientists, which was also founded 50 years ago, initially as the Federation of Atomic Scientists. The story has lost some of its freshness over the decades, but only because many of the principles and policies proposed by the early atomic scientists movement have been widely accepted.
Treaties are remarkably successful.
But we still have tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, a few of which might become available to rogue states. The great challenge for the twenty-first century is to reduce this overall threat while simultaneously enhancing the many beneficial uses of nuclear energy for all nations. The youth of today still have a mission worthy of their talent. John A. Simpson, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago, was chairman of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago and a founder of the Bulletin. He now chairs the Bulletin's Board of Sponsors.