Yeah. Slotkin's accident was of course boneheaded (and nuclear nations should bear responsibility for their actions) but I'm amazed and dismayed at how articles

Yeah. Slotkin's accident was of course boneheaded (and nuclear nations should bear responsibility for their actions) but I'm amazed and dismayed at how articles like this characterize the lack of safety culture as mere carelessness or hubris. The Americans knew that the Nazis were working on atomic weapons and believed (entirely reasonably, but incorrectly) that the Nazis were likely ahead of them. What was the safety risk of a nuclear-armed Adolf Hitler? We might as well criticize the lack of "safety culture" on D-Day or at the Battle of Stalingrad. These were people doing desperate, daring things in dangerous times at an intentionally breakneck pace. Slotkin's accident occurred in 1946 after the war ended, so Germany was not a looming threat at that instant. But we had similar concerns about the USSR's nuclear weapons program at that time.