National Museum of Nuclear Science & History
As with all types of art, works of theater tend to reflect the preoccupations of the society in which they are made. Because of this, it is unsurprising that stories about nuclear weapons have proven frequent fodder for dramatization in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This article provides a brief guide to some of the more notable plays that have tackled topics related to nuclear history. Interestingly, a majority of these works are from the past few decades. This may signal a recent, renewed cultural interest in nuclear weapons and the early decades of the Atomic Age.
Three Mile Island Control Room.
Photo Courtesy of Curtis Bathurst (Flickr): https://www.flickr.com/photos/curtisjbathurst/28387972
TMI-2 Reactor Diagram.
Image Courtesy of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC): https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html
![RBMK Reactor Schematic. Image by Fireice (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.atomicheritage.org/sites/default/files/RBMK%20Reactor%20Schematic.png "RBMK Reactor Schematic. Image by Fireice (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons")
RBMK Reactor Schematic.
Image by Fireice (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Control Panels of Chernobyl's Reactor Four.
Photo Courtesy of BBC World Service (Flickr): https://www.flickr.com/photos/bbcworldservice/5410423069/in/photostream/
Inside Chernobyl's Reactor Four.
Photo Courtesy of BBC World Service (Flickr): https://www.flickr.com/photos/bbcworldservice/5410424705/in/photostream/
![Towns Evacuated Around Fukushima on April 11th, 2011. Image Courtesy of User:Mayhew derivative work: derived from original work by User:Lincun [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)]](https://www.atomicheritage.org/sites/default/files/Towns_evacuated_around_Fukushima_on_April_11th%2C_2011.png "Towns Evacuated Around Fukushima on April 11th, 2011. Image Courtesy of User:Mayhew derivative work: derived from original work by User:Lincun [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)]")
Towns Evacuated Around Fukushima on April 11th, 2011.
Image Courtesy of User:Mayhew derivative work: derived from original work by User:Lincun [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)]
Water Sample Collection by IAEA & Japanese Marine Experts nearby Fukushima Daiichi.
Photo Credit: Petr Pavlicek / IAEA (IAEA Imagebank Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/iaea_imagebank/15111778564/in/photolist-p2nPhh-hkyAsz-e2oZTE-hTqc73-qcinvM-ec5jXh)
The MANIAC I at Los Alamos in 1952. Photo courtesy of LANL.
Early IBM calculating machines at Los Alamos
Paul Stein and Nick Metropolis playing modified chess with the MANIAC I
A MANIAC coding operator
