Interview with Edward Teller, 1986

Item Information

Title:
Interview with Edward Teller, 1986
Description:
Edward Teller was a theoretical nuclear physicist, an early participant in the Manhattan Project and a leading proponent of developing the hydrogen bomb. He served as Director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1958-1960. In this interview he discusses the early U.S. nuclear program. He recalls the fear of emigre physicists that the Nazis would be the first to develop and use an atomic weapon. He also discusses the petition circulated at the Los Alamos Laboratory calling for the U.S. not to drop the atomic bomb on Japan before demonstrating it to the Japanese. He describes his reaction to the Soviet atomic test in 1949, the eventual decision, after some resistance, for the U.S. to develop a hydrogen bomb, and related topics such as the debate over the feasibility of the device. He says that he was not surprised by the launch of Sputnik because since the end of World War II he has believed that the Soviets' military technology capabilities have consistently been underestimated. He explains why he is for nuclear testing, especially since there is no way to verify a test ban, and ends by expressing the view that nuclear weapons should not have been used in 1945, but having been used, the world will never resort to them again.
Interviewee:
Teller, Edward, 1908-2003
Date:
February 24, 1986
Format:
Film/Video
Location:
WGBH
Collection (local):
WGBH Open Vault
Series:
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Subjects:
Nuclear fission
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)--History--Bombardment, 1945
Hydrogen bomb
Physicists
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
World War II
Nuclear weapons
Strauss, Lewis
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963)
Nagasaki-shi (Japan)--History--Bombardment, 1945
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
Szilard, Leo
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. General Advisory Committee
Nuclear weapons--Testing
Edicia Sputnik
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945
Sakharov, Andrei, 1921-1989
Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955
Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, 1894-1971
Alvarez, Luis W., 1911-1988
Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 1904-1967
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972
Lovett, Robert A. (Robert Abercrombie), 1895-1986
Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945
Wigner, Eugene Paul, 1902-1995
Lawrence, Ernest Orlando, 1901-1958
Stalin, Joseph, 1879-1953
Places:
California > Santa Clara (county) > Palo Alto
Japan
Germany
Extent:
00:41:22:11
Link to Item:
http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_4AE4018C4E8C404FBB08D22D74C5A464
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
WGBH Educational Foundation
Identifier:
V_4AE4018C4E8C404FBB08D22D74C5A464