The Consequences of Nuclear War

11/20/16

Name of Student

Intro to World Politics

The Consequences of Nuclear War

        Nuclear warfare has been prevented by investing huge amounts of money into nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence. This way of thinking is very dangerous and could lead to a catastrophe unimaginable by man. Nuclear weapons technology has come very far from its inception in the early 1940’s to now, and as the tensions between countries rises, the threat of nuclear warfare looms over the United States. To understand where nuclear warfare started and how far it is come, this paper will first give an explanation of how nuclear weapons work and then cover a brief history of nuclear warfare. After that, the amount of nuclear weapons each country has will be gone over. Finally, this paper will discuss the implications of nuclear warfare on the world and the lingering effects of nuclear fallout. Nuclear warfare is nothing to take lightly; we must consider the implications now before it is too late.

How Nuclear Weapons Work

        Nuclear weapons have been around since the early 1940’s. To understand nuclear weapons, first one must understand how they work. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that uses either fission or a combination of fusion and fission. Weapons that use both fission and fusion are also called thermonuclear or hydrogen bombs.  Both reactions only use a small amount of matter to create massive quantities of energy. An atom is made up of three subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. The nucleus of the atom is comprised of positively charged protons and neutrons with no charge. The negatively charged electrons orbit the nucleus. Normally, there is an equal amount of protons and electrons, however, when you change the number of neutrons in an atom, you get an isotope. Some isotopes are stable, while others are so unstable that they spontaneously emit particles called radiation and are considered to be radioactive. This process is known as radioactive decay. Radioactive decay can progress in different ways, usually ejecting a proton, neutron, or electron. In the case of spontaneous fission, the nucleus actually splits into two pieces, emitting electromagnetic energy known as a gamma ray. Fusion consists of bringing two smaller atoms to form a larger one. In both fusion and fission, huge amounts of radiation and heat energy are given off. In the 1930’s scientists began testing ways to cause fission by bombarding uranium with neutrons. This testing showed that the fission process actually resulted in even more neutrons being produced, starting a chain reaction that released an incredible amount of energy. Uranium-235, also known as U-235 was found to be one of the only materials able to go through induced fission. U-235 would take 700 million years to naturally decay, but if a neutron is inserted into its nucleus, it will become unstable and split in a matter of billionths of seconds. This split causes an emission of gamma radiation as the atoms settle down into their new states. Fission bombs were not very efficient (1.5% efficiency for Little Boy, the Hiroshima bomb), as the explosion takes away the material long before it all can be fissioned. Fusion is much more efficient and occurs when a single heavier atom is formed by the combination of two atoms’ nuclei. A fusion bomb’s explosion is roughly 700 times more powerful than a fission bomb such as Little Boy. (William Harris, 2000)

History

        Nuclear weapons played a crucial role in ending World War II. It can be argued that these weapons were pivotal in saving thousands of American lives. On August 6, 1945, Little Boy was dropped onto the Japanese city of Hiroshima and 3 days later, Fat Man was dropped onto Nagasaki. These are the only two events where nuclear weapons have been used in combat. Little Boy, a fission bomb using a gun as an explosion trigger, had an energy of around 15,000 tons of TNT. This bomb destroyed nearly 50,000 buildings and killed approximately 70,000 people. Fat Man, a fission bomb using an implosion as a trigger, had an energy of roughly 20,000 tons of TNT. The Fat Man killed approximately 35,000 people while destroying 60% of the city. Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers only 6 days later. (Burger, 2005)

Nuclear Weapons by Country

        After the atomic bombings of Japan and the end of World War II, the position of atomic weapons in military and international relations became unclear. For years, the United States was convinced that the threat of nuclear war would dissuade any attack on the U.S. There were many proposals to put all American nuclear weapons under international control. The Soviet Union began testing nuclear weapons as well about 4 years later. This broke the monopoly of nuclear technology held by the U.S. and began worldwide nuclear proliferation. The United Kingdom, France, and China all began testing atomic bombs in the following decade. (Njolstad, 2003)

        Today, nine countries now hold a total of over 15,000 nuclear weapons. The United States devotes more money to its nuclear arsenal than all other countries collectively. It currently holds an arsenal of 6,970 total warheads. Russia surpasses the U.S. in numbers at a staggering 7,300 total warheads. For both the U.S. and Russia, each have over 4,000 warheads that are retired and awaiting dismantlement. Both countries have roughly 1,750 warheads that are actually operational. France, China and the United Kingdom hold between 200-300 warheads while Pakistan, India, and Israel hold between 80-130 warheads in their possession. China, India, Israel, and Pakistan do not have any operational warheads, as they are retired weapons. North Korea has a currently unknown amount of nuclear weapons. (Chuck, 2016)