Nuclear Weapons Facts

Nuclear weapons have been the headlines of newspapers since the Hiroshima, Nagasaki bombings in 1945, but do you know that the idea of having a bomb that could wipe out an entire city was there in the minds of scientists from a long time? I'm sure many such facts might be unknown to you. Nuclear bombs have been used as a weapon only twice; in World War 2 on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombs were thrown by the United States as an answer to the attack on Pearl Harbor of the US soil. The drastic effects left millions dead and entire cities were wiped out. The debate on whether nuclear weapons are safe or not is going on since the first nuclear attack and always gathered mixed reviews.

Nuclear Weapons History

Facts say that the age of nuclear weapons began on 16th July 1945 when the United States tested its first atomic bomb "Trinity" at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Looking at this many countries followed this fashion of testing nuclear weapons, Soviet Union on the 29th August 1949, Britain on 3rd October 1952, France on 3rd December 1960, China on 16th October 1964 and India on 18th May 1974. Many countries after that tested their nuclear technology, thus marking the beginning of the nuclear age. The thermonuclear age started in 1952 when the US exploded their first nuclear thermonuclear bomb called "Mike" in the Pacific. The effect of this atomic bomb was 500 times more powerful and disastrous than "Trinity" and had an impact of 10.4 mega-trons. As per reports the US has tested more than 2000 nuclear bombs, the Soviet Union has tested 715 bombs, France has tested 210 bombs and Britain has done 45 tests. If you look at the total figures, since 1945 more than 2500 nuclear bombs have been tested on our home planet.

Countries with nuclear weapons have carried out blasts almost everywhere in the world, that includes air, water and land. Test bombs have been dropped by fighter jets and also been fired by rockets up to 200 miles into the atmosphere. Due to the results of atomic testing more than 3,450 kilograms of plutonium is lying around on the earth's surface and some 4,600 kilograms have been discharged across the atmosphere as a result of atmospheric nuclear testing. One of the most obvious nuclear facts is the destruction caused by the testing of nuclear weapons. Damage to environment has occurred, radioactivity has leaked due to the underground bombing and vast areas of earth have become uninhabitable as a result of nuclear testing in air and on land. Effects of nuclear bombs tests lasts through generations affecting health of parents and their children and their children.

Interesting Facts about Nuclear Weapons

After gaining some information on the history of nuclear weapons, here are some more popular nuclear or atomic bomb facts that are sure to enthralled you.

• As per latest reports there are more than 67,500 nuclear bombs present on this planet.
• Since 1945, more than 4,680 nuclear bombers have been built.
• One of the most interesting nuclear weapons facts was the witnessing of the first atomic explosion with the naked eye which was seen by Richard Feynman, a world renowned physicist.
• Alone in the Pacific the US has done more than 106 nuclear tests.
• More than 95% of all the nuclear weapons are in the control of the US and Russia.
• The top 10 nuclear weapon countries in the world are; the US, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, North Korea, Israel and the NATO countries (Germany, Belgium, Canada, Greece, Italy, Netherlands and Turkey)
• An average US nuclear bomb today is 10 times more stronger than the nuclear bombs which were used to destroy the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• At present there are more than 47,000 active bombs in the world which are enough to wipe out the entire human civilization. As long as nuclear weapons are kept active, human beings are an endangered species.
• According to the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) which was signed between Russia and US, both these countries have to lessen their deployed nuclear weapons between 1,700 to 2,200 by December 2012. On 31st December 2012, this treaty will expire and many security experts believe that both these countries will again redeploy as many nuclear warheads as they want against each other.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article on various nuclear weapons facts. The pros and cons of these bombs has been a topic of discussion in many international summits and meetings. Elimination of nuclear bombs is practically impossible, still various efforts have been laid by various human support groups and various states of the top 10 military powers of the world to accomplish this dream.