An atom bomb (1945), also known as an atomic bomb, nuclear bomb, nuke, or, simply, the bomb, can destroy an entire city in a moment. To nuke is to use a nuclear bomb.
In the late 1900s the world stood at the edge of a nuclear abyss: America and the Soviet Union, were enemies and each had more than enough bombs to destroy the world several times over.
The Soviet Union (the Russian empire under communist rule) fell in 1991 and those days are over. But since then three more countries have got the bomb. The danger is that sooner or later someone will use it.
Who got the bomb when:
- 1940s: America, Russia
- 1950s: Britain
- 1960s: France, China, Israel
- 1970s:
- 1980s: South Africa
- 1990s: Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, India, Pakistan
- 2000s: North Korea
Notes:
- South Africa, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus are in italics because they no longer have the bomb.
- Israel is widely believed to have the bomb, but does not admit to it.
- Iran is widely believed to be building one, but does not admit to it. It may have one by 2012.
Under America’s nuclear umbrella:
- NATO allies (Canada, Turkey, much of western Europe),
- Australia,
- Japan, South Korea.
America will defend these countries with its own bombs if necessary. In practice the umbrella probably extends to Israel, the Persian Gulf, Latin America, South Africa, Taiwan and New Zealand.
Iran has openly threatened Israel, but it is probably more interested in defending itself against America. Iran fought Iraq for eight years (1980-1988) and all it could manage was a draw. Yet it saw America destroy the same Iraqi army in a matter of months in 1991 and again in 2003.
Osama bin Laden wants the bomb, but most doubt he has one: He does not have enough money to get one or build one. A friendly country would have to give him one.
The bomb works by cutting an atom in half, which in turn cuts other atoms in half and so on. The next thing you know a whole city is gone with fires everywhere and winds blowing clouds of poison over other cities and countries. If enough bombs go off at once, it could become winter all over the world – the nuclear winter.
You can make an atom bomb only out of certain elements, like plutonium, and only if you have the right amount. It does not work with ordinary elements, like iron or copper. Making or getting the plutonium is the hard part.
The first bomb was made jointly by America, Britain and Canada in the early 1940s. They feared that Nazi Germany would build one first and win. Germany fell before either side had one. America used it on Japan instead to end the war there, destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th 1945, killing 214,000.
Germany, as it turns out, was not building the bomb. Hitler knew it would take five years: he would have won or lost the war by then.
See also:
Why do you refer to Osama bin Laden in the present tense?
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This was written before he died
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@silentreturn Ah! I see now the date on the post. Have no idea why it appeared on my RSS feed today, then…
oh well. nevermind. sorry.
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Another unknown section of one of my favorite blogs – and resonates with some Ideas I’ve have for many years – that this the “ultimate weapon” so powerful every major nation wants at least one ,but none wants or can realistically use it because of the acronym M.A.D : mutually assured destruction ,also just happens to be one of the common words for insanity and anger.
M.A.D.D mutually assured damage and/or destruction is the reason 99 percent of the time 98 percent of people are peaceful.
that other 2 percent suffer delusions of invincibility and immortality ,perhaps standard components of psychosis – the most severe mental disorder amongst our species.
This “ultimate weapon” and trying to develop a way to communicate during and after a nuclear war is allegedly the primary contributing factor in the development of the Internet we all use ,love and increasingly depend on.
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The earliest nuclear bombs relied purely on fission of Plutonium 239,
Uranium 235 or Uranium 233. The most powerful of these bombs had the
explosive equivalent of 500,000 tons of TNT.Later nuclear bombs added
a second stage involving deuterium-tritium fission; the first bomb such tested
had the explosive powr of 10,000,000 tons of TNT–20 times the power of the
largest “pure” fission bomb. Finally a third stage was added; the first three-
stage numke tested had the explosive power of 15,000,000 tons of TNT.The
most powerful nuk ever tested (by the Russians) had the explosive power
of 50,000,000 tons of TNT. The only two nukes used in warfare on the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had the explosive power of 16,600
and 22,000 tons of TNT respectively. Because of Hiroshima’s small land
area at the time, the city was completely trashed and 140,000 people were killed.
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The increase in the destructive radius of a nukeincreases proportional to the
cube root of the increase in explosive power. To double the radius of
destruction you would need a bomb 8 times as powerful; the triple it, 27
times as powerful, etc. The destructive radius of a bomb of a given explosive
yield varies with the type of construction; wood frame and metal buildings
are the most vulnerable; re-enforced concrete the least. The radius of
severe damage for the nukes used at the end of WW Ii was i.2 miles
for commercial buildings and 1.5 miles for residential buildings, but the
built up portion of the city was only about 7 square miles; the rest was
empty space or parkland. People were seriously burned, and light
combustables ignited at 2 miles; a firestorm burned over an area of just
under 7 square miles. To destroy all 5 boroughs of New York City would
require a bomb of about 10,000,000 tons of TNT, but to destroy Hobogen, New Jersy would require a bomb with a yield of about 4,000 tos of TNT–
about 1/4 the size iof the one used on Hiroshima.
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There was some fallout and some casualties due to fallout in both cities
but not as much as if the bomb had exploded on the ground. The bombs were
exploded at an altitude of about 1600′ to maximize the blast area. Nevertheless
rescue workers who came into the ruined cities as much as 48 hours later
developed radiation sickness.
Addendum: the figures given for the second post refer to Hiroshima.
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[…] warlordism. Five warring states have nuclear weaponsand a million men or more on active military […]
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