WASHINGTON -- The physicist who threw the switch that set of the world's first atomic bomb 40 years ago said today he had no regrets following its use on Hiroshima because it ended the war.
Joseph McKibben set in motion the experiment at a site called Trinity about 200 miles from Los Alamos, New Mexico, after 2 years of research and development.
'Well, I started the timing equipment, which timed not only the setting off of the bomb, but all of the experiments, the photographs, so that that was done togther,' McKibben said on the NBC 'Today' program.
McKibben was asked if he had any regrets the bomb had been invented after two of them -- Little Boy and Batman -- were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, the only atomic bombs used in combat.
'Let me go back,' McKibben said. 'I think that many of us thought when we came here that this thing would not work, but we were going to give it the best chance. It did work and of course we were delighted and it stopped the war.'
Berlyn Brixner, the photographer who took the first pictures of the detonation, also was interviewed on the program.
'I was simply astounded at the brightness of the explosion,' Brixner said. 'It was just blinding. That caused me to look aside at the mountains and I saw that they were lighted as though by daylight.'
Brixner said that although it was 5:30 in the morning, 'The mountains were lit up like they were sun-lit and then I looked back through the protective filter ... and I could see the growing ball of fire. It was just growing at a tremendous rate. I could just hardly believe it and I wondered when would it stop growing. But my cameras were purring away and I knew I was getting pictures there and I was exceedingly pleased because that was my job.'
McKibben also said the scientists working on the project 'didn't take very seriously the concern that (the bomb) would set off the atmosphere. Our concern was whether it really would go above 10,000 tons (of TNT). ... We were surprised at the 20,000 tons (explosion).'
