Nuclear technology development began with American internationalism and industrial preeminence, shaped by the Manhattan Project, the ensuing Cold War, and the Atoms for Peace programs of the fifties and sixties (Magwood). The first of these, the Manhattan Project sought to facilitate the United StatesÆ development of nuclear weapons with help from the United Kingdom and Canada (ôManhattan Projectö). The Cold War brought about ôthe first nuclear arms race in historyö (ôCold Warö). Atoms for Peace was an initiative birthed by a pivotal speech that President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave to the U.N. General Assembly in 1953, proposing creation of ôa system of international cooperation to develop peaceful nuclear technologies and share them with countries around the worldö (ôAtoms for Peaceö). This initiative transformed the image people had of nuclear energy from that of a destructive weapon technology to a peaceful way of improving the quality of life for the worldÆs people (ôAtoms for Peaceö). Thanks to this shift in perception, nuclear energy development has progressed along the path of enhancing lives rather than destroying them, providing new energy sources, defense technologies, medical breakthroughs, innovations used in space, and climate change.
Nuclear technology development holds much promise for meeting challenges in the near and distant future through the efforts of various researchers and developers around the globe. At Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, for instance, research in both nuclear fissionùôthe splitting of heavy elements such as Uranium-235öùand nuclear fusionùôthe fusing of two light elementsöùis conducted, and innovations are being developed for meeting many of these challenges (ôNuclear Power Web Links;ö ôNuclear Technology and Applications Research at Los Alamos National Laboratoryö). The transmutation of nuclear waste, for example, is a pressing challenge...