Always/Never: The Quest for Safety, Control, and Survivability - Part 1
What it is
Part one of Sandia National Labs' first-person documentary on the use control, detonation safety and survivability of US nuclear weapons. It covers nuclear sharing in NATO and how control of use was separated from possession, leading to the always/never problem.
Why Hacker News recommends it
Strongly recommended in nuclear-accident and weapons-history threads as an excellent documentary on how nuclear weapons were made safe and secure.
- 2 people recommended it
- 2 different months
- 1 strong recommendations
- first 2021, last 2026
What HN commenters said
“I highly recommend this three-part series produced by Sandia National Laboratory”
Three-part series on Sandia's nuclear weapon safety and control design.
crmd, 2024-12 · Strong recommendation · in “The Albuquerque "Broken Arrow" Nuclear Accident”
“There is an excellent three part documentary from Sandia National Labs”
Covers technology and history of nuclear device safety.
generuso, 2026-05 · Recommendation · in “Lost Images from the 1945 Trinity Nuclear Test Restored”
Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.
Topics: sandia, nuclear weapons, use control, cold war, always/never
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