This week marks the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which was followed by the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on Aug. 9.

In recognition of those terrible events, it is timely to draw the attention to a nuclear weapons issue that requires immediate action at the congressional level. That problem is the unique and unsettling authority of the president of the United States to be the sole person responsible for the launch of U.S. nuclear weapons. There are no limits on that authority. The president could choose to launch nuclear weapons at any moment. No emergency or perceived nuclear attack would be required for an order to launch.

Perhaps most concerning of all, the president could make the unilateral decision to launch the “first use” of a nuclear weapon. The only way a subordinate could stop a launch would be to violate their oath to follow orders. Neither apparent diminished mental capacity nor emotional instability could alter that “sole presidential authority.” We believe that no single person should be in the position of making the decision to launch nuclear weapons. Once launched, they cannot be recalled or destroyed.

Very few of us are old enough to have any recollection of that first and only time nuclear weapons were used. Almost all the people who witnessed the horrors these weapons inflicted on Japan are now deceased or were children when those bombs were dropped. The passage of time appears to have created a frightening casualness. Nuclear weapons appear to be thought of now as simply big bombs that can be used at will. Russian President Vladimir Putin has certainly behaved as if that were the case, threatening to use nuclear weapons at his own country’s border. Other unstable leaders are also threatening the use of nuclear weapons, testing them, and in other ways being confrontational. It is a chilling thought.

Today’s nuclear weapons are vastly more destructive than those used against the Japanese, a fact that is not appreciated by many. President Truman had days to consider the use of nuclear weapons, a decision that annihilated hundreds of thousands of people in an instant and left hundreds of thousands more to die lingering deaths over decades. Now one single individual will have only minutes to make a decision that could end human civilization and life on this planet as we know it. How can one person be given that choice?

The policy of sole presidential authority was put into place by President Truman following the dropping of the bombs in 1945. It is a relic of its time. No other military action is conducted without a robust joint decision-making process. Sole presidential authority is contrary to the American way of doing things; the most destructive use of force by our country can be operationalized by a single person. Furthermore, polling has found that the majority of Americans are uncomfortable with the concept of sole presidential authority to launch nuclear weapons. Mainers for Ending Nuclear Dangers (a local affiliate of the national Back from the Brink campaign) is calling for changes to this risky policy.

Over the last several years, a number of alternative ideas have been proposed by experts in the field, all of which seem far better than the current policy. We urge Sen. Angus King and Sen. Susan Collins to immediately begin work together on a legal framework that would alter this dangerous policy and provide needed safeguards that could help protect us all from an unthinkable nuclear Armageddon.