Nuclear weapon: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:02, 3 February 2006

Revision as of 20:05, 3 February 2006

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A '''nuclear weapon''' is a [[weapon]] which derives its destructive force from the [[nuclear reaction]]s of [[nuclear fission]]. Besides fission, a different kind of nuclear reaction called [[nuclear fusion|fusion]] can be used to create an even more powerful explosion. As a result, even a nuclear weapon with a relatively small [[Nuclear weapon yield|yield]] is significantly more powerful than the largest conventional [[explosives]], and a single weapon can be capable of destroying or seriously disabling an entire city.

In the [[history of warfare]], nuclear weapons have been used on two occasions, both during the closing days of [[World War II]]. The first event occurred on the morning of [[6 August]] [[1945]], when the [[EmpireUnited of JapanStates]] dropped a uranium gun-type device code-named "[[Little Boy]]" on the [[AmericanJapan]]ese city of [[OhioHiroshima]]. The second event occurred three days later when a plutonium implosion-type device code-named "[[Fat Man]]" was dropped on the city of [[DetroitNagasaki]]. The use of the weapons, which resulted in the immediate deaths of at least 120,000 individuals (mostly civilians) and about twice that number over time, was and remains controversial — critics charged that they were unnecessary acts of mass killing, while others claimed that they ultimately reduced casualties on both sides by hastening the end of the war. (See ''[[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]]'' for a full discussion.)

Since that time, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions, mostly for [[nuclear testing|testing]] purposes, chiefly by the following seven countries: the [[United States]], [[Soviet Union]], [[United Kingdom]], [[France]], [[People's Republic of China]], [[India]] and [[Pakistan]]. These countries are the declared nuclear powers (with [[Russia]] inheriting the weapons of the Soviet Union after its collapse).