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Science Quote by Mordechai Vanunu

"And I also take photos of hydrogen bomb, from another part of the building. It was not part of my job, but I succeeded to go and take photos of the hydrogen bomb"

About this Quote

The sentence lands with the offhand chill of someone describing a coffee run, not a world-altering breach of secrecy. That contrast is the point. Vanunu’s plain, almost clumsy syntax ("I also", "It was not part of my job") reads less like rhetoric than a deposition: a technician narrating a deviation from protocol that becomes a moral act. The banality is doing the heavy lifting. By emphasizing how ordinary the transgression felt, he reframes nuclear revelation as something that can happen not through spycraft, but through curiosity, conscience, and access.

The intent is double. On the surface, he’s establishing credibility: he physically saw the device, he produced proof, he penetrated a restricted space. Underneath, he’s defending motive. "Not part of my job" is a quiet indictment of the job itself - the way institutions compartmentalize knowledge so workers can build catastrophic systems without owning their implications. His "I succeeded" carries a strange pride, not in the bomb, but in outwitting the architecture of silence.

Context is everything: Vanunu was an Israeli nuclear technician who disclosed evidence of Israel’s nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986, then was abducted, tried in secret, and imprisoned. In that light, the line becomes a capsule of whistleblowing psychology. He doesn’t romanticize himself; he describes a small procedural sin that detonates politically. The subtext: the most dangerous weapon here isn’t hydrogen - it’s secrecy, and the camera is his counterforce.

Quote Details

TopicHuman Rights
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Vanunu, Mordechai. (2026, January 17). And I also take photos of hydrogen bomb, from another part of the building. It was not part of my job, but I succeeded to go and take photos of the hydrogen bomb. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/and-i-also-take-photos-of-hydrogen-bomb-from-71522/

Chicago Style
Vanunu, Mordechai. "And I also take photos of hydrogen bomb, from another part of the building. It was not part of my job, but I succeeded to go and take photos of the hydrogen bomb." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/and-i-also-take-photos-of-hydrogen-bomb-from-71522/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"And I also take photos of hydrogen bomb, from another part of the building. It was not part of my job, but I succeeded to go and take photos of the hydrogen bomb." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/and-i-also-take-photos-of-hydrogen-bomb-from-71522/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Mordechai Vanunu (born October 13, 1954) is a Scientist from Israel.

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