The Reluctant Nuclear Hero

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Wally, the Reluctant Nuclear Hero

Factual: History

Factual: Science & Nature

Wally, The Reluctant Nuclear Hero

BBC Radio 4 - Wally, the Reluctant Nuclear Hero

The story of Wally, the physicist that prevented nuclear disaster during the Vietnam war.

Wally, a nuclear physicist from Idaho, faced almost certain death when he flew into the Central Highlands of Vietnam to prevent nuclear devastation, during the end days of the war.

The infamous breakdowns of Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011 represent our deepest fears around nuclear power, yet both disasters happened during peace time. 

In the early days of the war, Russian forces seized Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The site has come under repeated fire, prompting warnings in May this year from the UN nuclear agency that the world risked a "severe nuclear accident". 
 
And this isn't a new problem. Here we tell a story with its origins in the Vietnam War and how the threat of the world's first dirty bomb loomed large.

The battle over nuclear energy first came to the attention of the West in 1975, as the North Vietnamese Army advanced on Saigon during the end days of the war. Most of the world was unaware at the time that the North Vietnamese were also advancing on a new breed of nuclear reactor, gifted to the South by the US government. Not only was it technology the North's Russian allies did not yet have, it was also a source of weapons-grade nuclear fuel. As a last resort, the US discussed bombing the facility, risking nuclear fallout rather than have the technology fall into Soviet hands.
 
To avoid humanitarian and environmental disaster on a colossal scale, and despite having literally no military experience, a physicist from Idaho called Wally Hendrickson volunteered to be dropped into the front line to remove the fuel rods from the reactor before it was over run. 

Still alive and well, Wally's story is just as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. The setting may be different, but right now the fear of nuclear disaster hangs over us.


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