A physician in Springfield is celebrating a treaty banning nuclear weapons that he helped make a reality.
The United Nations adopted the agreement on Friday that outlaws developing, stockpiling, or threatening to use nuclear weapons, but none of the world's nine nuclear-armed nations took part in the talks, and they all oppose it.
Still, Ira Helfand calls the treaty a step in the right direction.
Helfand, who serves on the board of the national Physicians for Social Responsibility group, has worked with a United Nations-established panel focused on the global nuclear crisis and wrote a report examining the impact of limited nuclear war.
(Photo by Adam Glickman/Underwood Archives/Getty Images)