There Is No Such Thing as a "Nuclear Scientist". There Are Only Physicists
If Vladimir Putin were to strike the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, we would not hesitate to call it out for what it would be—a war crime. It is no different if we or one of our allies does it.
Let’s bury the dangerous, lazy, and politically convenient idea that there exists a distinct species of person called a "nuclear scientist." There is no such thing. There are physicists. Some specialize in nuclear physics, some in astrophysics, some in condensed matter, and so on. That’s it. “Nuclear scientist” is a term of propaganda, used to dehumanize and justify acts of violence against scientists who simply do the same kind of physics work anyone with a strong academic background in physics could understand.
If Vladimir Putin were to strike the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, we would not hesitate to call it out for what it would be—a war crime. It is no different if we or one of our allies does it. The physics does not care who drops the bomb.
Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.
I believe that. But the way to stop that was not this. The smart move would have been a clandestine operation, surgical and quiet. Boots on the ground to destroy critical hardware. A mission that carries risk, that may cost lives, but does not end with radioactive fallout blanketing entire regions. That would have been moral. That would have been proportional. What has been done is not.
The recent assassinations of Iranian scientists labeled as "nuclear scientists" should chill every working physicist, student, or educator. Because let us be honest. Every physicist who has completed a bachelor’s degree knows the basic theory behind nuclear weapons. Anyone with a master’s or PhD knows enough to refine and improve that knowledge. The only barriers to building a weapon are material access, facilities, and intent. Not secret knowledge. The science is well-known, well-published, and decades old. It is taught in undergraduate curricula all over the world. It is in the textbooks.
To claim that these Iranian physicists were somehow uniquely dangerous or uniquely culpable because of their careers is to insult every physicist alive. I never knew the men who were killed. But I have worked with physicists from national laboratories. I have learned from physicists of Russian, Iranian, and Israeli descent. I have been in the classroom with students who went on to work at nuclear facilities and those who stayed in education. Some of them were part-time instructors, teaching general physics during the week and helping manage stockpile stewardship programs at Argonne or Los Alamos. None of them—none of us—are military targets by virtue of our education.
Let us be perfectly clear. There is nothing magical or uniquely threatening about the knowledge held by a nuclear physicist.
The field of nuclear physics does not inherently deal with weapons. In fact, most nuclear physics research today is focused on things like fusion energy, medical imaging, cancer treatment, or fundamental questions about the structure of matter. The "secret" of the bomb is no secret at all. It is the industrial capability and political will that matters.
Now let’s talk about facilities. Places like Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan are different not because of who works there, but because of what those facilities can physically do. Even then, turning those into smoking holes in the ground is not a solution. It is a crime against humanity. Blowing them apart from the air is the kind of recklessness that could lead to multiple Chernobyl-scale environmental disasters. If Vladimir Putin were to strike the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, we would not hesitate to call it out for what it would be—a war crime. It is no different if we or one of our allies does it. The physics does not care who drops the bomb.
Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.
I believe that. But the way to stop that was not this. The smart move would have been a clandestine operation, surgical and quiet. Boots on the ground to destroy critical hardware. A mission that carries risk, that may cost lives, but does not end with radioactive fallout blanketing entire regions. That would have been moral. That would have been proportional. What has been done is not.
We have crossed a line. When physicists can be murdered for being physicists, for working in the wrong lab in the wrong country, then we are all targets. I do not say this for dramatic effect. I say this because it is logically consistent. If these are the new rules, then any of us who teach, study, or apply nuclear physics are now strategic targets.
We have not yet seen the spiral that could follow. But if it does spiral, and it might, it will not be because of the science. It will be because of the choices made around it. The people who know how nuclear bombs work are not rare. The choice to kill them—that is what is dangerous.
Science 2.0 https://www.science20.com/hontas_farmer/there_is_no_such_thing_as_a_nuclear_scientist_there_are_only_physicists-257489 This is my classic news blog where I break science news. I don’t write as much as I used to but when I do it’s a banger.
References
Krane, K. S. Introductory Nuclear Physics. Wiley, 1987.
Glasstone, S., and Dolan, P. J. The Effects of Nuclear Weapons. U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Energy, 1977.
National Academies of Sciences. Review of the Department of Energy’s Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium. https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25593/
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Reports. https://www.iaea.org/publications/search/type/iaea-technical-reports-series
Congressional Research Service. Iran’s Nuclear Program: Status. https://sgp.fas.org/crs/nuke/RL34544.pdf
Federation of American Scientists. Status of World Nuclear Forces. https://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/