| The
facts about nuclear weapons
| A
nuclear weapon is a weapon which derives its destructive force
from nuclear reactions of either nuclear fission or the more
powerful fusion. As a result, even a nuclear weapon with a relatively
small yield is significantly more powerful than the largest
conventional explosives, and a single weapon can destroy or
seriously disable an entire city. |
- The
U.S. spends over $75 million every day preparing for Nuclear
War.
-
There are still over 23,000 nuclear weapons world wide.
- Since
1942, the U.S. has spent $4 TRILLION on the development,
construction & maintenance of its nuclear arsenal.
-
There have been over 2,044 nuclear explosions worldwide
raising background radiation levels and contaminating land
and water.
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In
the history of warfare, nuclear weapons have been used only
twice, both during the closing days of World War II. The first
event occurred on the morning of 6 August 1945, when the United
States dropped a uranium gun-type device code-named "Little
Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The second event
occurred three days later when a plutonium implosion-type device
code-named "Fat Man" was dropped on the city of Nagasaki.
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The use of the weapons,
which resulted in the immediate deaths of at least 200,000 individuals
(mostly civilians) and about twice that number over time, was and
remains controversial — critics charged that they were unnecessary
acts of mass killing, while others claimed that they ultimately
reduced casualties on both sides by hastening the end of the war.(See
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for a full discussion.)
Since that time, nuclear
weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for testing
and demonstration purposes, chiefly by the United States, Soviet
Union, United Kingdom, France, People's Republic of China, India,
and Pakistan.
The
history of nuclear weapons chronicles the development of nuclear
weapons—devices of enormous destructive potential which
derive their energy from nuclear fission or nuclear fusion reactions—starting
with the scientific breakthroughs of the 1930s which made their
development possible, continuing through the nuclear arms race and
nuclear testing of the Cold War, and finally with the questions
of proliferation and possible use for terrorism in the early 21st
century.
The first fission weapons
("atomic bombs") were developed in the United States during
World War II in what was called the Manhattan Project, at which
point two were dropped on Japan. The Soviet Union started development
shortly thereafter with their own atomic bomb project, and not long
after that both countries developed even more powerful fusion weapons
("hydrogen bombs"). During the Cold War, these two countries
each acquired nuclear weapons arsenals numbering in the thousands,
placing many of them onto rockets which could hit targets anywhere
in the world. Currently there are at least seven countries with
functional nuclear weapons. A considerable amount of international
negotiating has focused on the threat of nuclear warfare and the
proliferation of nuclear weapons to new nations or groups.
| State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States
would not use nuclear weapons against a non nuclear state
unless the state attacked the United States or its
allies in conjunction with a nuclear state. The
United States also reserved the right to any kind of military
response if it or its allies come under attack by a weapons
of mass destruction, a phrase which embraces nuclear, chemical
and biological weapons, he added.
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International
The declared nuclear
powers are United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, People's
Republic of China, India, and Pakistan. Various other countries
may hold nuclear weapons, but they have never publicly admitted
possession, or their claims to possession have not been verified.
For example, Israel has modern airborne delivery systems and appears
to have an extensive nuclear program with hundreds of warheads (see
Israel and weapons of mass destruction); North Korea has recently
stated that it has nuclear capabilities (although it has made several
changing statements about the abandonment of its nuclear weapons
programs, often dependent on the political climate at the time)
but has never detonated a weapon and its weapons status remains
unclear; and Iran was accused by a number of governments of attempting
to develop nuclear capabilities, though its government claims that
its acknowledged nuclear activities, such as uranium enrichment,
are for peaceful purposes. (For more information see List of countries
with nuclear weapons.)
Here are the Nuclear
Weapons States, Who They Are And How Many Weapons Each Possesses
United States
U.S.
NUCLEAR WEAPONS BUDGET "BLANK CHECK" THREATENS
ENVIRONMENT, NATIONAL SECURITY, NON-PROLIFERATION;
CONGRESS URGED TO REJECT DANGEROUS PROGRAMS, CLEANUP CUTS
The Bush Administration's
nuclear weapons budget request currently under consideration by
Congress, poses significant threats to the environment, national
security and non-proliferation, according to a network of groups
from communities located downwind and downstream from U.S. weapons
facilities. It is time for Congress to reject "blank check"
spending increases for new nuclear weapons and polluting technologies
such as radioactive waste "reprocessing." Instead, there
needs to be a restoration of funds for cleanup programs at severely
contaminated Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons facilities
which the Bush Administration has proposed to cut.
Shundahai
Network's comments
on the DOE's Draft Long Term Stewardship Study
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