Inaction on nuclear weapons risks all life

On the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Louise Sarsfield Collins argues that accidental nuclear detonation is a much more pressing issue than nuclear war.

WE ALL know that Japan was the first country the US dropped nuclear bombs on. What fewer people know is that the second country the US dropped nuclear bombs on was itself. It occurred in 1961 but was only confirmed with the release of classified papers in 2013.

While the first use was deliberate, the second was accidental. Two bombs were dropped over the North Carolina city of Goldsboro when a B-52 bomber broke apart mid-air, dispensing its cargo near a settlement of 30,000 people and just 580km from the State capital Raleigh.