Nuclear Reaction

Uranium seemed to be a magic metal. It seemed to promise an inexhaustible supply of energy. It seemed to offer being on the very cutting edge of technology. Being involved in the bomb, being involved in reactor technology... all the bright young scientists wanted to work in the nuclear field.

– Scientist Neil Whitehead remembers the 1950s

I was only a couple of feet, three feet away from the submarine and I was so blimming wild that I just leapt off the vessel I was in and jumped on. And, I tell you, it made my legs shake a bit.

– Stephen Sherie on boarding a nuclear submarine during a protest in Auckland Harbour

The American response was just staggering. If they had adopted a tone of self righteous grief, I would have been out of office - and probably the country - in six months. But throwing their weight around didn’t work.

– Prime Minister David Lange on American reaction to his government’s nuclear ships ban