Nuclear weapon

Nuclear weapon  (“Weapon of mass destruction”)
A US nuclear test over Bikini Atoll in 1954
Type	technology
Interest of	• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists • M. Elaine Bunn • Coalition for Peace Through Security • Coalition for Peace Through Strength • Henry Cooper • David Hoffman • International Institute for Strategic Studies • Bruce Kent • Manhattan Project • Jeff McCausland • Hilda Murrell • George Perkovich • UK/Atomic Energy Authority

In May 1975, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reported that the United States had over 30,000 nuclear weapons at home, at sea, in Europe, and in Asia. Of these weapons, 8,500 were considered strategic weapons and 22,000 tactical weapons. The main difference between strategic and tactical nuclear weapons (TNW) is their range: TNW have a shorter range, but are sometimes more powerful than strategic nuclear weapons.

In 2010, the Pentagon revealed that the total number of US nuclear weapons had been reduced to just 5,113.

Official narrative

According to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, those nations which have these weapons of mass destruction are obliged to try to prevent their spread and to eliminate their own holdings of these weapons. A nuclear war involving USA or Russia could quite possibly result in a nuclear winter and cause humans and most other life forms to go extinct.

History

Nuclear weapons were first developed by the Manhattan Project in the USA and twice deployed on Japan at the end of World War II. Their creation and stockpiling was a major element in the cold war. At least 33,000 US citizens were killed by their development and mass production. Many tens of thousands of other people were killed as a result of the nuclear tests carried out in remote locations such as Pacific islands.

Non-Proliferation Treaty

Full article: Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

In 1968 the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was signed, which committed states without nuclear weapons not to seek to acquire them, and those with them to reduce their holdings. However, the nation states with nuclear weapons are not abiding by the treaty and have never made serious efforts to reduce their holdings. Indeed, "a trillion dollar build up of U.S. nuclear weapons is well underway." In 2010 the Pentagon revealed that the US had 5113 nuclear weapons, down from over 31,000 in the late 1960s. More recent FOIA requests to determine the current number have been denied, notwithstanding their claim that "increasing the transparency of global nuclear stockpiles is important to non-proliferation efforts".

The only nation to have acquired but then given up nuclear weapons is South Africa. The exact fate of some of South Africa's weapons is uncertain, and rumours suggest that three of them were "misplaced".

Connection to Nuclear power

A proper accounting of the risks of nuclear power reveals that its development was never economically justifiable, but was primarily intended as a method of deriving radioisotopes for use in nuclear weapons - explaining a lot of the lies and other hypocrisies which continue to surround the topic.

Alternative uses?

Many alternative uses have been proposed for nuclear weapons, including bizarre ones such as the disruption of hurricanes, expedite excavation, generate power, rearrange the solar system or even to attempt to plug the leaking deep water horizon oil spill. No uses have proved feasible apart from te mass extermination of living beings.

Continued risk

Nuclear weapons continue to pose a real risk of human extinction.

 

Examples

Page name	Description
Chevaline (missile)
China/Nuclear weapons
France/Nuclear weapons
Iran/Nuclear weapons
Israel/Nuclear Weapons
Mini-nuke	A nuclear device small enough to be carried in a backpack
North Korea/Nuclear weapons
Russia/Nuclear weapons
Saudi Arabia/Nuclear Weapons
South Africa/Nuclear weapons	Like the South African biological weapons program, it was developed in close cooperation with the Israeli nuclear and biological weapons programs. While officially destroyed in 1993, the bombs were in fact sold on the international black arms market, with help from the British deep state.
Submarine
UK/Nuclear weapons	The UK has nuclear weapons on submarines
US/Nuclear weapons	The US had (has?) far more nuclear weapons than any other nation state and made clear a while back, that it is very willing to use them.
Ukraine/Nuclear weapons	Ukraine held about one third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Bruce Cumings	“The United States is the power that introduced nuclear weapons into Korea, and it took this drastic step primarily to stabilize volatile North-South relations. Always suspicious of North Korea's intentions, in the mid-1950s the Eisenhower Administration also worried that South Korean President Syngman Rhee might reopen the war. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles wanted to restrain both sides — with nuclear weapons. Even hotheads like Rhee and Kim Il Sung, he believed, would think twice before starting a war that would rain atomic destruction on the peninsula. In January of 1958 the United States positioned 280mm nuclear cannons and "Honest John" nuclear-tipped missiles in South Korea; these were followed a year later by nuclear-tipped Matador cruise missiles. Soon American and South Korean defense strategy rested on routine plans to use nuclear weapons very early in any new war — at "H + 1," according to one former U.S. commander in Korea, meaning within one hour (more likely a few hours) of the outbreak of war if large masses of North Korean troops succeeded in attacking south of the DMZ. Annual "Team Spirit" military exercises included rehearsals for battlefield nuclear war. North Korea responded by building enormous facilities underground or in mountain redoubts, from troop and materiel depots to munitions factories and warplane hangars. This was a bit of a problem for American surveillance, in that it allowed for a great many places to hide an atomic bomb.”	Bruce Cumings	2005
John McCain	“Republican 2008 presidential hopeful John McCain crooned the words “Bomb Iran” to a Beach Boys’ tune in joking response to a question about any possible U.S. attack over Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons program. “That old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran ... bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb,” the Vietnam War veteran warbled softly to the band’s “Barbara Ann” when he was asked when the United States would send an “airmail message” to Iran.”	John McCain Reuters	April 2007

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Institute for Statecraft & Center for Naval Analyses Joint Workshop	workshop summary	22 June 2018	Integrity Initiative	Information Warfare Study Day hosted by British Navy. Candid opinions (with a NATO-flavor) on lots of military issues.
Document:Jeremy Corbyn’s Chatham House speech	Article	12 May 2017	The Spectator	"Weapons supplied to Saudi Arabia, when the evidence of grave breaches of humanitarian law in Yemen is overwhelming, must be halted immediately."
Document:Labour Built the Bomb	Article	10 July 2017	Bill Ramsay	The prompt for this short essay is not Labour's nuclear legacy: it is what took place in the UN General Assembly last Friday when the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty passed into international law.
Document:Russia is deploying nuclear weapons in Belarus. NATO shouldn’t take the bait	Article	24 April 2023	Nikolai Sokov	Moscow regards the United States and Europe as parties to the war; Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared that Russia and the United States are in a “hot phase” of war. These statements elevate the Russian war against Ukraine to the category of a “regional conflict” according to the 2000 and subsequent Russian Military Doctrines – a category that allows for limited use of nuclear weapons.
Document:Speech to the European Parliament by Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of ICAN	Speech	7 February 2018	Beatrice Fihn	"Are you going to support the new Trump Nuclear Doctrine? Join the thinking of Russia, North Korea? Cheer on a new nuclear arms race? Or are you going to support the work for the prohibition and the elimination of nuclear weapons? You cannot do both."
Document:The Impending Dangers of Nuclear War	article	20 February 2014	Jim McCluskey	The risk of a catastrophic use of nuclear weapons is increasing as the nine (known) nuclear weapons states continue to upgrade their vast nuclear arsenals and keep them in a high state of readiness.
Document:The Kiss of Death	article	2005	Leuren Moret	Insight into where privatisation of the US Nuclear weapons program and military/weapons/surveillance developments are leading the world. It also provides shocking information about the extent of the apparently quite deliberate and calculated radiation contamination resulting from ever-expanding use of depleted uranium munitions.
Document:Will Iran Kill the Petrodollar?	article	25 January 2012	Marin Katusa	The possibility of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons is largely a smoke-screen used by the Western powers to obfuscate the real reasons for their escalating confrontation with Iran.
Document:Xi Jinping says a dark shadow looms over the world after years of peace	Article	3 September 2017	Tom Phillips Wang Zhen	Shen Dingli, an international relations expert from Shanghai, said Sunday’s nuclear test underlined the futility of both Washington and Beijing’s policies towards North Korea: "It's only a matter of time before Donald Trump realises he has no choice but to sit down with Kim Jong-un."
File:Containment of Soviet underground nuclear explosions.pdf	report	September 2001	Vitaly V. Adushkin William Leith
File:Critical Technology Assessment.pdf	Report	April 1987	Clarence A Robinson Edwin S. Townsley	US Institute for Defense Analysis assessment of the technologies of Israel and NATO nations - including nuclear weapons capailities. Declassified in March 2015 with all but the Israeli sections remaining redacted.
File:DivestmentReport.pdf	report	March 2012	Jan Willem van Gelder Petra Spaargaren Tim Wright
File:ZFacts 2005 03 15 Joint Nuclear Operations.pdf	policy	15 March 2005

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