Projects & events

New Mexico | 2023

The workshop included a trip to the National Museum of Nuclear Science

Thirty years after the end of the Cold War the threat of nuclear weapons use has been resurrected in Russia’s war against Ukraine. To bring more understanding and better reporting to an existential risk that underpins the defense policy of nine possessors of nuclear weapons now and into the future, we invited US-based staff and freelance journalists working for national and international media to join us in a workshop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 6-10 June 2023 funded by the Carnegie Corporation New York with support from the Outrider Foundation, hosted by the University of New Mexico’s Department of Communication and Journalism.

Prominent specialists addressed 25 journalists about the history and future of nuclear weapons, their effects, policy, nuclear non-proliferation, the erosion of arms control agreements and the challenges of reporting on the subject. Participants also visited Trinity Site and the National Museum of Nuclear Science in Albuquerque. Descendants of victims exposed to fallout from the Trinity test in 1945, who continue to seek compensation for inter-generational cancer effects they say is a consequence, accompanied journalists to the test site near Almogordo.

Hawaii | 2019

The three and half day workshop explored new dimensions of nuclear risks

On the morning of January 13, 2018, an inbound ballistic missile alert sounded across the U.S. state of Hawaii, reaching hundreds of thousands of citizens by television, radio, and mobile devices - and was shared further on social media. The false alert, declaring “This Is Not a Drill” followed months of escalating nuclear threats between North Korea and the USA. Together with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security 15 journalists from Europe, the US, Russian Federation, Japan, India, Pakistan and South Korea, were selected to participate in a workshop in Hawaii, January 8-12, 2019 just ahead of the anniversary of the infamous alert.

Using the “This Is Not a Drill” false alert as a starting point, this journalism workshop explored new dimensions of nuclear risks and how some technological innovations - like communications technologies, social media, cyber capabilities, and open source data - might increase or decrease these risks. The workshop also explored how to effectively cover these stories while taking into consideration the media’s critical role in informing the public before, during, and after a crisis.

Third Nuclear Age | KAS

Air defense systems stationed in the U.S. during the cuban missile crisis

There is consensus that the world is crossing the threshold into a Third Nuclear Age, one in which artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies are becoming entangled with the command and control of nuclear weapons. The Third Nuclear Age, potentially more dangerous than its predecessors, arrived mostly absent the hard fought agreements that offered a level of security in the Cold War. New policies provide nuclear weapons a non deterrent role, and investment in their modernisation signals little change in plans for their future.

To put things into perspective, we created an extensive timeline of the major events in the nuclear space since the creation of the first atomic bomb. The timeline is split into 3 epochs and includes events like important treaties, use of nuclear weapons, nuclear testing and broken arrows. A “Broken Arrow” is defined as an unexpected event involving nuclear weapons that results in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft or loss of the weapon. This project was funded by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, KAS.

Atomic Youth | Instagram

Atomic Youth member Valeriia Hesse conducting an interview for Instagram

Is it time to banish nuclear weapons? For six days in June 2022 in Vienna, Austria, as their threatened use in the war in Ukraine permeated public concern, delegates from around the world addressed nuclear dangers and risks, and rallied behind a year-old UN treaty calling for their prohibition. The central events of this week were the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, the first Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and a civil society conference, the Nuclear Ban Forum, organized by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Atomic Reporters organized an international team of young citizen journalists to cover the events. They conducted interviews, created movies and images for social media, shared their point of view on nuclear dangers and why measures to curb them are failing. The series of events was supported by different social media campaigns, in particular our own "No Nukes Vienna" cross-platform campaign. The project was funded by the Austrian Foreign Ministry and our team reached over 1 million people, mostly young adults.