Is There a Nuclear Weapon Program?

"How obscene it would be for a country…that still has poverty, that still has all these problems, to spend billions in nuclear weapons. What for?"

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has specialized in non-proliferation and disarmament issues for more than 35 years – ever since he began his career as a diplomat in his native Argentina, when the country's then military dictatorship announced that it had mastered uranium enrichment.

For many, nuclear is a feared technology. But Rafael argues that it's also a beneficial one. In his conversation with podcast host Melissa Fleming, he explains how advances in nuclear technology have led to pioneering medical treatments and smarter agriculture. He cites the launch of Rays of Hope, a new initiative to harness nuclear technology to scale cancer treatment for women across Africa.

Rafael also shares how meeting atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki drives his work at the helm of the IAEA, known as the world's 'nuclear watchdog.'