The whole hearing took a month. Oppenheimer 2023 ***** starring Cillian Murphy & Emily Blunt & Matt Damon & Robert Downey junior & Florence Pugh & Josh Hartnett & Casey Affleck & Rami Malek & Kenneth Branagh & Dylon Arnold et al, director Christopher Nolan, Admiral
Who’d want to justify their whole life? ibid. hearing
Happy? No. I was homesick, emotionally immature … troubled by visions of a hidden universe. ibid. Oppenheimer
What do you know about quantum physics? ibid.
Alvarez: What are we thinking?
Oppenheim: A bomb, Alvarez, a bomb. ibid.
You’re not just self-important, you’re actually important. ibid. boss to Oppenheimer
Somebody who wanted Robert silenced. ibid. Admiral
A secret laboratory in the middle of nowhere, secure, self-sufficient, equipment, housing, the works, keep everyone there till it’s done … ibid.
You drop a bomb, it falls on the just and the unjust. I don’t wish the culmination of three centuries of physics to be a weapon of mass destruction. ibid. Izzy
We still don’t know if a hydrogen bomb is technically feasible. ibid. Oppenheimer
You’re the great salesman of science. You can convince anyone of anything. Even yourself. ibid. Szilard
What did Fermi mean by atmospheric ignition? ibid. General to Oppenheimer
Robert, try not to blow up the world. ibid.
These things are hard on your heart. ibid. Oppenheimer
And now I am become death. The destroyer of worlds. ibid.
Now it’s your turn to deal with the consequences of your achievement. ibid. Einstein to Oppenheimer
‘We’ve got an energy crisis looming. And we need to tell people if we don’t invest now, the lights are going to go out.’ The Atom: A Love Affair, Cameron, Netflix 2020
‘Under my presidency, we’ll accomplish a complete American energy independence. Complete. Complete.’ ibid. Trump
The atom, a thing of wonder, the building block of the universe. But with the power to destroy it too. A byword for war, the atom knew it could be so much more: a miracle technology that would revolutionise medicine, industry, agriculture, transport, and most of all, energy. If only we would let it. ibid.
In the annals of love, it’s an affair like no other. ibid.
‘The British set up the first civil nuclear plant at Calder Hall in the UK.’ ibid. scientist
Germany: The peaceful teach-ins soon gave way to far uglier scenes. ibid.
March 1979: Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, an accident at a nuclear power plant. ibid. TV news
A partial meltdown less than 100 miles from a major city. ibid.
Windscale/Sellafield: ‘BNFL was accused of having radioactivity along the shoreline.’ ibid. scientist critic
Chernobyl: ‘12,500 square kilometres … uninhabitable. ibid.
A plume of radioactive fallout drifted west over Europe. ibid.