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Part 1 of 3 Parts
       Following the Second World War and the detonation of two atomic bombs over Japan, the U.S. carried out many physical tests of atomic bombs both in the atmosphere and underground at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. This allowed the scientists to develop their understanding and physical intuition of the weapons they worked. The test detonations also reinforced their respect for the awesome power they were unleashing. Many of them said that personally witnessing the nuclear fury of the blasts changed who they were and the way they thought about future wars.
    In 1992, the U.S. banned physical testing of nuclear warheads in the atmosphere and underground. After the ban was put in place, scientists who were new to the field of nuclear weapons design were only able to witness nuclear detonations on computer screens or virtual reality systems. Some of the most power computer ever made were used at the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories to simulate nuclear explosions. Until the development of virtual reality systems, the simulations could only be experienced as two dimensional images on a computer display. With the arrival of virtual reality, the simulations could be experienced in three dimensions by a person wearing virtual reality goggles.
      There is a virtuality theater at4 Los Alamos called a CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Reality Environment.) Wearing a pair of 3D VR goggles, a researcher can inhabit a simulation as if they were standing inside an actual nuclear explosion. The purpose of the simulation in the CAVE is to “demonstrate” a nuclear explosion. The people who work with the CAVE simulation are able to experience something that would instantly kill them in the real world.
     When nuclear testing moved underground, weapon designers could more easily distance themselves from the horrible consequences of their work. Deep underground, the nuclear detonations became abstract. Even underground testing left craters and created seismic effects that shook the ground. However, with respect to simulated explosions on computers displayed in virtual reality, some critics say that the weapons designers are well insulated from the physical devastation of nuclear weapons. This may reduce their concern about the ethical implications of their research and the possible use of nuclear weapons they design.
     A senior nuclear weapons designer once lamented that he had only personally seen the devastation caused by a nuclear detonation once. He said that it changed his perception of his work permanently. He is concerned about the moral effects or perhaps the lack of moral effects that may result from moving their weapons research to the virtual realm. He and others who work on nuclear weapons are also concerned about how virtuality may impact the science involved in their work. They say that physical intuition based on personal experience is an important and critical facet of research.
      One senior weapons developer says, “The young designers look at anything new and they say, ‘This is so much better than what we had before. We can throw out everything we did before!’” Senior staff at the national laboratories that work on nuclear weapons call the young designers enamored of simulations and virtual reality “drunk drivers.” Inside the simulations, the researchers think everything is fine but they show less judgement in their design work than their older colleagues who had actual experience with real nuclear detonations.
Please read Part 2 next