Opinion

An Historic Opportunity for the Hiroshima G7 Summit

Will Biden, Kishida and Zelensky recognize nuclear disarmament and nuclear power plants as issues of concern?

The Cenotaph near the epicenter of the August 6, 1945 Hiroshima nuclear bomb. [Wikimedia]

Today marks a poignant moment in time, as we witness the leaders of the world’s most influential countries assemble in Hiroshima.

As these powerful officials grapple with the pressing demands of peace, climate, diasporas, pandemics and famine, there’s little time left to contemplate the lessons of history. But here, today, at the epicenter of such great horror and suffering, isn’t it time to do more than pay our respects? Isn’t it time to admit our past mistakes? Isn’t it time to choose a new path forward — a time to make bold proclamations that future generations can laud?

Hiroshima . . . Nagasaki . . . Fukushima. How much tragedy can one country take?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to join the G-7 summit today. He knows all too well how bad things can get, and how long it takes for nuclear scars to heal. Chernobyl is just 140 kilometers from Kiev. And now we read that the International Atomic Energy Agency is sounding the alarm over the critical situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility.

We all live downwind. It takes no imagination to recognize the very real threats that nuclear bombs and nuclear power plants pose in a world where autocrats act without morals.

The doctrine of deterrence against mutually assured destruction is quite possibility the most illogical nonsense of all time. And its follow-on has proven to be just as insidious, as expressed in President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” initiative, with its promise that nuclear energy would become “too cheap to meter”. I lump nuclear bombs and nuclear power plants in the same category because uncontrollable forces (tyrants, wars, natural disasters, engineering failures) have the potential to turn both into catastrophes.

This kind of stress is not necessary. Let’s envision a world without nuclear fission. Join me in a call for nuclear disarmament and nuclear-free renewable energy.