World Politics on Screen: Understanding International Relations through Popular Culture

5. A Primer on Nucle ar We apons

5 a PrImer on nUClear WeaPons When the nuclear era began on 16 July 1945 with the denotation of the world’s first nuclear device in Alamogordo, New Mexico, it opened a door to new possibilities in terms of war and peace in world politics. The Second World War saw many countries desperate to acquire a “super” weapon to ensure their victory. A nuclear weapon was thought to guarantee substantial success in the war for whichever country developed it. And indeed, the United States used its new atomic weapon to help hasten the end of the Second World War in the Pacific—and to win it. The weapon would go on to help define the politics of the cold war and beyond. Because of the substantially enhanced destructive capabilities of the weapon, many countries consideredthedevelopmentofnucleararmsvitaltotheirlong-termsecurity.1 Countries That Have Nuclear Weapons Typically, we define those countries that have demonstrated or tested a nuclear device as belonging to the nuclear club. In addition, Israel, which has not formally tested a nuclear device, is assumed to possess several such weapons.2 Four states have had a nuclear capability in the past but have voluntarily dismantled their projects or given up weapons. South Africa, under the apartheid regime, acquired a nuclear arsenal in December 1982. After the leader of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, was released from prison and went on to lead a multiracial government, South Africa began to dismantle its arsenal.3 When the Soviet Union collapsed and broke into fifteen separate republics, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine each had Soviet nuclear weapons in its territory. Unprepared to adequately defend such weapons, the three states agreed, under the Lisbon Accords (1991), to transfer the weapons to Russia (the legal successor to the Soviet Union) in 75 76 Conflict and Cooperation in World Politics exchange for compensation from the international community, including the United States. Difference between Atomic Weapons and Nuclear Weapons Basically all atomic weapons are nuclear weapons, but not all nuclear weapons are atomic weapons. A nuclear explosion is created one of two ways. Atomic weapons produce a detonation, or explosion, by splitting either a uranium or plutonium atom. This process is known as fission and produces a great deal of energy. A hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bomb fuses hydrogen atoms together, much like the sun does. This fusion process then uses an atomic detonation to create a much more efficient and bigger explosion. A hydrogen bomb creates much more energy than does a regular atomic bomb. For example, the atomic bomb used at Hiroshima in 1945 killed about 130,000 people. Yet this is small in comparison to the destructive power of a large hydrogen bomb, which is one thousand times greater. A single large hydrogen bomb has more explosive power than all the bombs dropped during World War II.4 Effects on Humans of a Nuclear Detonation There are four primary effects on humans from a nuclear detonation: blast, heat, prompt radiation, and fallout radiation. The precise effects depend on the size and location of the bomb detonation. The flash produced by the detonation is so bright that people facing the direction of the detonation can have their optical nerves burned. We tend to focus on the blast because Table 5.1. Members of the nuclear club Country First weapon test United States 16 July 1945 Soviet Union (Russia) 29 August 1949 United Kingdom 3 October 1952 France 13 February 1960 China 16 October 1964 India 18 May 1974 Pakistan 28 May 1998 PDRK (North Korea) 9 October 2006 A Primer on Nuclear Weapons 77 the iconic image of nuclear weapons is that blast and the subsequent mushroom cloud, but other effects are probably equal to its effects or even more devastating in many ways. The heat of a nuclear detonation is momentarily hotter than the surface of the sun. It is so intense that humans and other living organisms, as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, can be instantly vaporized. Those further from the center of the blast can be overcome with heat exhaustion. The heat also can produce multiple spontaneous fires. These fires can create what is known as firestorms which, in their intensity, can create high winds and deplete the oxygen supply in a given area. As a result of both the fission and fusion processes, one of the byproducts of a nuclear detonation is a high level of radiation. In hydrogen weapons, radiation is...