THERE are many things that frighten us these days. Terrorism. Economic meltdown. Climate change. Ebola. Genetically modified crops.

One thing that doesn't scare us so much, however, is the threat of nuclear Armageddon.

During the cold war, that was what gave parents sleepless nights. That fear perhaps found its best expression in Raymond Briggs' graphic novel When The Wind Blows. The novel followed an ordinary English couple, the Bloggses, who on the outbreak of nuclear war trustingly followed official advice on constructing a fallout shelter. Gradually, unknowingly, they succumb to radiation sickness. The book ends on a horrifyingly bleak note with the couple praying in their shelter, covered in paper bags, as death approaches.

York's cold war bunker in Acomb is a chilling reminder of just how close we came to destroying ourselves.

In today's newspaper, however - as part of an article written to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the first testing of an atomic bomb - York University expert Dr Nick Ritchie warns that the threat of nuclear war is by no means over. The US and Russia alone each have hundreds of warheads ready for deployment at a few minutes notice which could easily bomb us all 'past the point of recovery'.

It is a sobering reminder.

An international movement, the Humanitarian Initiative, is now working towards removing the legal obstacles to the 'prohibition and elimination' of nuclear weapons. More than 100 governments have signed up to its Humanitarian Pledge - although not, needless to say, the UK, the US or Russia.

On the 70th anniversary of the development of the bomb, how good it would be to see more nations - even perhaps our own - talking seriously about the need to ban all nuclear weapons once and for all.