Physics professor Dr. Jerry Gilfoyle discussed the importance of being educated about nuclear weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty to a group of students and faculty in his lecture on Wednesday.
Approximately 25 students and faculty members came to hear Gilfoyle’s lecture, “Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle: The Science of Nuclear Non-Proliferation.” Gilfoyle explained the significance of the nuclear bomb and why college students and citizens of the United States should be concerned with this issue.
Gilfoyle said his interest in nuclear weapons had gone back a long time, and he had spent 2001 working with the federal government in Washington, D.C.
There, Gilfoyle did an assessment of the test-ban treaty and submitted it to President Bill Clinton. An article explaining Gilfoyle’s study of the test-ban treaty and his request for the U.S. to ratify it was on the cover of The New York Times, Gilfoyle said.
“The goal of the test-ban treaty is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, material and technology and to reduce or eliminate nuclear weapons,” he said.
The treaty is not based on trust, but rather on a network of testers that are designed to detect signs of nuclear explosions, Gilfoyle said.
The U.S is currently a signatory of the treaty, but it has not ratified it. Gilfoyle said President Obama is committed to bringing the CTBT to a vote for ratification in the senate.
“You should care [about nuclear weapons and the test-ban treaty] if you’re going to be a good citizen and vote,” Gilfoyle said.
Gilfoyle said that ratification of the test-ban treaty would diffuse a lot of potential arms races, and because of advanced technology, it was apparent that detection and identification of nuclear explosions is possible.
“There is important, exciting physics to be done here,” Gilfoyle said. “As someone who has studied this for years, my belief is that we should ratify the treaty.”
Contact staff writer Molly Gentzel at molly.gentzel@richmond.edu
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