“I, right from the beginning, have been terribly worried by the existence of nuclear weapons and very much against their use.”

—  Mark Oliphant

On potentials for misuse of nuclear power, p. 31
Portraits in Science interviews (1994)
Context: I, who had been in favour of nuclear energy for generating electricity … I suddenly realised that anybody who has a nuclear reactor can extract the plutonium from the reactor and make nuclear weapons, so that a country which has a nuclear reactor can, at any moment that it wants to, become a nuclear weapons power. And I, right from the beginning, have been terribly worried by the existence of nuclear weapons and very much against their use.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I, right from the beginning, have been terribly worried by the existence of nuclear weapons and very much against their…" by Mark Oliphant?
Mark Oliphant photo
Mark Oliphant6
Governor of South Australia (1971-76) 1901–2000

Related quotes

Rudy Giuliani photo

“It would be very dangerous to use the military option [against Iran]. It would not be a good thing. But it would be much more dangerous and much worse if they had nuclear weapons.”

Rudy Giuliani (1944–2001) American businessperson and politician, former mayor of New York City

Hannity and Colmes, Fox News, April 4, 2007.

Martin Amis photo

“What is the only provocation that could bring about the use of nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. What is the priority target for nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. What is the only established defense against nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons. How do we prevent the use of nuclear weapons? By threatening to use nuclear weapons. And we can't get rid of nuclear weapons, because of nuclear weapons. The intransigence, it seems, is a function of the weapons themselves.”

Martin Amis book Einstein's Monsters

"Introduction: Thinkability"
Einstein's Monsters (1987)

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad photo

“… the use of nuclear weapons is Iran's right.”

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (1956) 6th President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

CNN mistranslation of phrase in 14 January 2006 news conference <br class="br">correct translation: &quot;Iran has the right to nuclear energy.&quot; <br class="br"> &quot;CNN allowed to resume work in Iran after apology&quot; http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5347--, Reuters, 17 January 2006 <br class="br">Misattributed

Denis Healey photo

“So long as the Soviet Union has nuclear weapons there have to be nuclear weapons somewhere in NATO to deter them from using them.”

Denis Healey (1917–2015) British Labour Party politician and Life peer

The Tribune (28 March 1986).
1980s

Margaret Thatcher photo

“The fact is that the two major nuclear powers have not gone to war against each other—because, I believe, nuclear weapons are achieving their purpose as a deterrent that makes the prospect of war too horrific. It is noteworthy that, since the last world war, there have been 140 conventional wars, fought with ordinary weapons, which are themselves horrific, and that nuclear weapons have been a deterrent to war. I therefore believe that we should keep them.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Prime Minister&#x27;s Questions (15 June 1982) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104968 <br class="br">First term as Prime Minister

Andrei Sakharov photo

“Three technical aspects of thermonuclear weapons have made thermonuclear war a peril to the very existence of humanity. These aspects are: the enormous destructive power of a thermonuclear explosion, the relative cheapness of rocket-thermonuclear weapons, and the practical impos­sibility of an effective defense against a massive rocket-nuclear attack.”

Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989) Soviet nuclear physicist and human rights activist

Progress, Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom (1968), Dangers, The Threat of Nuclear War

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“How right it is to love flowers and the greenery of pines and ivy and hawthorn hedges; they have been with us from the very beginning.”

Vincent Van Gogh book The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Source: The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Thomas C. Schelling photo

“The next possessors of nuclear weapons may be Iran, North Korea, or possibly some terrorist bodies. Is there any hope that they will have absorbed the nearly universal inhibition against the use of nuclear weapons, or will at least be inhibited by the recognition that the taboo enjoys widespread acclaim?”

Thomas C. Schelling (1921–2016) American economist

Nobel Prize lecture (2005)

Denis Healey photo

“The US, whether we like it or not, has nuclear weapons. The US is a member of NATO. Possession by the US of nuclear weapons is obviously a deterrent.”

Denis Healey (1917–2015) British Labour Party politician and Life peer

The London Standard (30 September 1986).
1980s

Vladimir Putin photo

“Russia does not have in its possession any trustworthy data that supports the existence of nuclear weapons or any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and we have not received any such information from our partners as yet.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

News conference http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,810093,00.html with then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, October 2002. <br class="br">2000 - 2005

Related topics