"Complex Transformation " is the Department of Energy 's euphemistic term for its $150 billion plan to "modernize " America 's eight nuclear-weapons facilities. To meet environmental-impact regulations, the DOE announced hearings only near the eight sites and in Washington, D.C. Wisconsin citizens, however, decided to have a hearing also.

In fact, Wisconsin has a long history of anti-nuclear activism. David Bradley, a graduate of the UW medical school and observer at the 1946 Bikini tests, wrote "No Place to Hide, " documenting the tests ' deadly radiation effects. In 1982, a statewide referendum against nuclear weapons passed overwhelmingly. Former UW law professor Gary Milhollin now directs the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control in Washington.

Seven civic organizations continued this activist tradition when, on Feb. 11-16, they displayed the Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-bomb Exhibition in the state Capitol rotunda and held the "Citizens ' Hearing on U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy. "

At the hearing, chaired by state Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, spokespersons for U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin reaffirmed support for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which commits the nuclear-power signatories, including the United States, to work for the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

Other speakers included Dr. Jeffrey Patterson of Physicians for Social Responsibility, UW-Madison professor emeritus of genetics Seymour Abrahamson, a prominent researcher on radiation effects on atomic-bomb survivors. I offered historical perspectives. In the hearing 's public portion, 10 citizens spoke powerfully and cogently against the DOE 's plan, and nearly 30 more registered their opposition, while none supported it.

But isn 't all this anachronistic? Didn 't the nuclear threat fade with the Cold War 's end? Unfortunately, no. In fact, we face greater risks today than ever before.

Not only peace activists are worried. Recently in Oslo, a team of elder statesmen warned gravely of nuclear-proliferation dangers, not only from nation-states, but from terrorist groups, and urged redoubled efforts to abolish these terrible weapons.

These Cassandras included such unlikely figures as former Republican secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, joined by former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and William Perry, defense secretary under President Clinton.

Rather than furthering this urgent goal, the present administration has intensified the danger.

It has proposed development of earth-penetrating nuclear missiles for actual combat use. It has given massive aid and military assistance to Israel and Pakistan, and promised nuclear know-how to India, although all three nations possess nuclear weapons in defiance of world opinion and nonproliferation treaties.

It has spent billions on a destabilizing and technologically dubious anti-missile defense program and seeks $10.2 billion more.

While warning of Iran 's and North Korea 's nuclear ambitions, the Bush administration has mostly ignored or worsened the larger global threat -- a threat in which America is deeply implicated.

Sadly, what President Kennedy in 1963 called "the nuclear sword of Damocles " menacing the world still remains, in many ways more threatening than ever. Thankfully however, from Oslo to Madison, one sees gathering evidence of a renewed awareness of this threat -- and a determination to combat it.

Boyer is professor emeritus of history at UW-Madison.