Chuck Hansen

Chuck Hansen (May 13, 1947 – March 26, 2003) was the compiler, over a period of 30 years, of the world's largest private collection of unclassified documents on how America developed atomic and thermonuclear weapons.

Research Hansen's documents were obtained through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Since his death, they have been housed at the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

In 1988, Hansen wrote the book U.S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History, which, along with great detail about the process of developing, testing and administering atomic weapons, was critical of the U.S. Defense Department, the Atomic Energy Commission, and some other government agencies. In the book, Hansen reported that the early years of nuclear testing were less successful than claimed; bombs failed, or yielded smaller or larger explosions than anticipated or announced, and attempts to develop a radioactivity-free bomb were unsuccessful.

Publications