> With explosions taking place virtually, how much harder will it be for weapons scientists to confront the destructive power of their work and its ethical impl

> With explosions taking place virtually, how much harder will it be for weapons scientists to confront the destructive power of their work and its ethical implications? What exactly is her hoped response, once a physicist realizes by watching a live atomic bomb explosion, that these things actually hurt? They'll quit working there? That didn't occur with the first few generations of bomb physicists. Enough stuck around to produce bomb after bomb, both here and abroad. If anyone needs to learn this lesson, it's the proliferators -- except they'd just be overjoyed at the fearsome might, not terrified. Tehran and Pyongyang won't be deterred by feeling the dreadful rumble of a live test. (I'd pay to watch one, though.) There may be dark side effects of virtualization, but this article's premise is weak.