Katana VentraIP

Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon[a] is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter.

For other uses, see Atom bomb (disambiguation), A-bomb (disambiguation) or Nuke (disambiguation).

The first test of a fission ("atomic") bomb released an amount of energy approximately equal to 20,000 tons of TNT (84 TJ).[1] The first thermonuclear ("hydrogen") bomb test released energy approximately equal to 10 million tons of TNT (42 PJ). Nuclear bombs have had yields between 10 tons TNT (the W54) and 50 megatons for the Tsar Bomba (see TNT equivalent). A thermonuclear weapon weighing as little as 600 pounds (270 kg) can release energy equal to more than 1.2 megatonnes of TNT (5.0 PJ).[2]


A nuclear device no larger than a conventional bomb can devastate an entire city by blast, fire, and radiation. Since they are weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation of nuclear weapons is a focus of international relations policy. Nuclear weapons have been deployed twice in war, by the United States against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 during World War II.

Testing and deployment

Nuclear weapons have only twice been used in warfare, both times by the United States against Japan at the end of World War II. On August 6, 1945, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) detonated a uranium gun-type fission bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" over the Japanese city of Hiroshima; three days later, on August 9, the USAAF[3] detonated a plutonium implosion-type fission bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. These bombings caused injuries that resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 civilians and military personnel.[4] The ethics of these bombings and their role in Japan's surrender are to this day, still subjects of debate.


Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated over 2,000 times for testing and demonstration. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are suspected of seeking them. The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons—and acknowledge possessing them—are (chronologically by date of first test) the United States, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is believed to possess nuclear weapons, though, in a policy of deliberate ambiguity, it does not acknowledge having them. Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Belarus are nuclear weapons sharing states.[5][6][b] South Africa is the only country to have independently developed and then renounced and dismantled its nuclear weapons.[7]


The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons aims to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons, but there are different views of its effectiveness.[8]

August 21, 1945: While conducting experiments on a plutonium-gallium core at , physicist Harry Daghlian received a lethal dose of radiation when an error caused it to enter prompt criticality. He died 25 days later, on September 15, 1945, from radiation poisoning.[65]

Los Alamos National Laboratory

May 21, 1946: While conducting further experiments on the same core at Los Alamos National Laboratory, physicist accidentally caused the core to become briefly supercritical. He received a lethal dose of gamma and neutron radiation, and died nine days later on May 30, 1946. After the death of Daghlian and Slotin, the mass became known as the "demon core". It was ultimately used to construct a bomb for use on the Nevada Test Range.[66]

Louis Slotin

February 13, 1950: a in northern British Columbia after jettisoning a Mark IV atomic bomb. This was the first such nuclear weapon loss in history. The accident was designated a "Broken Arrow"—an accident involving a nuclear weapon, but which does not present a risk of war. Experts believe that up to 50 nuclear weapons were lost during the Cold War.[67]

Convair B-36B crashed

May 22, 1957: a 42,000-pound (19,000 kg) accidentally fell from a bomber near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The detonation of the device's conventional explosives destroyed it on impact and formed a crater 25 feet (7.6 m) in diameter on land owned by the University of New Mexico. According to a researcher at the Natural Resources Defense Council, it was one of the most powerful bombs made to date.[68]

Mark-17 hydrogen bomb

June 7, 1960: the destroyed a Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc nuclear missile and shelter and contaminated the BOMARC Missile Accident Site in New Jersey.

1960 Fort Dix IM-99 accident

January 24, 1961: the occurred near Goldsboro, North Carolina. A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two Mark 39 nuclear bombs broke up in mid-air, dropping its nuclear payload in the process.[69]

1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash

where a Skyhawk attack aircraft with a nuclear weapon fell into the sea.[70] The pilot, the aircraft, and the B43 nuclear bomb were never recovered.[71] It was not until 1989 that the Pentagon revealed the loss of the one-megaton bomb.[72]

1965 Philippine Sea A-4 crash

January 17, 1966: the occurred when a B-52G bomber of the USAF collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refuelling off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard.[73] Of the four Mk28 type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carried,[74] three were found on land near Almería, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impact with the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 2-square-kilometer (490-acre) (0.78 square mile) area by radioactive plutonium. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a 212-month-long search.[75]

1966 Palomares B-52 crash

January 21, 1968: the involved a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52 bomber. The aircraft was carrying four hydrogen bombs when a cabin fire forced the crew to abandon the aircraft. Six crew members ejected safely, but one who did not have an ejection seat was killed while trying to bail out. The bomber crashed onto sea ice in Greenland, causing the nuclear payload to rupture and disperse, which resulted in widespread radioactive contamination.[76] One of the bombs remains lost.[77]

1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash

September 18–19, 1980: the occurred in Damascus, Arkansas, where a Titan Missile equipped with a nuclear warhead exploded. The accident was caused by a maintenance man who dropped a socket from a socket wrench down an 80-foot (24 m) shaft, puncturing a fuel tank on the rocket. Leaking fuel resulted in a hypergolic fuel explosion, jettisoning the W-53 warhead beyond the launch site.[78][79][80]

Damascus Accident

Initial stage—the first 1–9 weeks, in which are the greatest number of deaths, with 90% due to thermal injury or blast effects and 10% due to super-lethal exposure.

radiation

Intermediate stage—from 10 to 12 weeks. The deaths in this period are from in the median lethal range – LD50

ionizing radiation

Late period—lasting from 13 to 20 weeks. This period has some improvement in survivors' condition.

Delayed period—from 20+ weeks. Characterized by numerous complications, mostly related to healing of thermal and mechanical injuries, and if the individual was exposed to a few hundred to a thousand of radiation, it is coupled with infertility, sub-fertility and blood disorders. Furthermore, ionizing radiation above a dose of around 50–100 millisievert exposure has been shown to statistically begin increasing one's chance of dying of cancer sometime in their lifetime over the normal unexposed rate of ~25%, in the long term, a heightened rate of cancer, proportional to the dose received, would begin to be observed after ~5+ years, with lesser problems such as eye cataracts and other more minor effects in other organs and tissue also being observed over the long term.

millisieverts

Media related to Nuclear weapons at Wikimedia Commons

: reliable source, has links to other sources and an informative FAQ.

Nuclear Weapon Archive from Carey Sublette

The provide information on weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons and their effects

Federation of American Scientists

– contains resources related to nuclear weapons, including a historical and technical overview and searchable bibliography of web and print resources

Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Video archive of at sonicbomb.com

US, Soviet, UK, Chinese and French Nuclear Weapon Testing

– located in New Mexico; a Smithsonian Affiliate Museum

The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History (United States)

Nuclear Emergency and Radiation Resources

at AtomicArchive.com

The Manhattan Project: Making the Atomic Bomb

(U.S. nuclear history)

Los Alamos National Laboratory: History

PBS website on the history of the H-bomb

Race for the Superbomb

Recordings of recollections of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

or NPIHP is a global network of individuals and institutions engaged in the study of international nuclear history through archival documents, oral history interviews and other empirical sources.

The Woodrow Wilson Center's Nuclear Proliferation International History Project

– a 3D nuclear weapons effects simulator powered by Google Maps.

NUKEMAP3D