We provide substantive information about nuclear science and technology Atomic Reporters assists journalists globally better understand and access information about nuclear weapons and other, peaceful, uses of nuclear technology. The subject is complex,...

About us

Our team

Peter Graham Rickwood

Peter Graham Rickwood
Managing Director

Alexander Nitzsche

Alexander Nitzsche
Media Expert

Tariq Rauf

Tariq Rauf
Board member

Our mission

We provide substantive information about nuclear science and technologyWe provide substantive information about nuclear science and technology
Atomic Reporters assists journalists globally better understand and access information about nuclear weapons and other, peaceful, uses of nuclear technology. The subject is complex, the weapons file is secretive and vulnerable to disinformation. Journalists say access to information, followed by a lack of technical knowledge are the major challenges their nuclear reporting faces. Unfamiliar with the basics of nuclear weapons technology few journalists were able to challenge false claims Iraq had resumed its secret nuclear weapons programme, a justification for the 2003 war.

We provide access to independent specialists, insight and practical understanding to improve reporting and inform audiences with essential understanding about an existential risk. Our efforts have been supported by the Carnegie Corporation New York, Stanley Center for Peace and Security, and others. We have brought journalists from Iran to Israel together in our workshops, which have been held in the USA, Europe, Egypt and India, involving journalists from as far apart as Russia and South Korea, Georgia and Pakistan.

History

The first nuclear weapon: 'The Gadget'The first nuclear weapon: 'The Gadget'
The world’s first nuclear weapon was detonated by the US in July 1945. A month later the US attacked Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan with nuclear weapons. In 1954 the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant in Russia became the first reactor in the world to be connected to the domestic power grid and the use of nuclear technologies is ubiquitous today in medicine, industry and science.

The perception nuclear threats had faded with the end of the Cold War came to an end in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while modernization and expansion programmes are underway and advancing technologies bring new risks of confrontations and accidents. Arms control agreements that provided mutual assurance in the Cold War have mostly been torn up. Authoritative reporting is needed to draw more attention to nuclear dangers and ways to address them.