It's around this time that the Physics students at my school begin covering nuclear physics and I figured this is an important enough topic to warrant a thread since it doesn't have on yet. If I thought wrong, I apologize and feel free to sage/kill this thread.

Nuclear weapons are a controversial topic, some people think that nuclear bombs are essential to the protection of a country whilst others argue that it is unnecessary and a threat to the planet.

A Short History of Nuclear Warheads/War:
It is important to note that nuclear weapons have only been used twice to date. Both times by the US on Japan during WWII. The US dropped a bomb on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively. The damage that the bombs caused to both places was great enough to act as the catalyst that pushed Japan's emperor to end the war.
During the Cold War, pressure of nuclear war was at a high tension. Both the US and Soviet Russia had nuclear weapons and the consequence of what might happen if a war happened was high on people's minds.

Currently, there are around 23-24,000 nuclear warheads in the world (a decrease from the 70,000 during 1986), the majority of which are owned by Russia and the US.

Many people fear the repercussions of what could happen if say, a terrorist got their hands on a nuclear bomb. It is not an impossibility. Anyone could build a nuclear bomb using commercialized products; the only setback would be in getting either highly enriched uranium or plutonium.

There are many organizations that are pushing for the end of nuclear weapons altogether, Greenpeace, for example. President Reagan himself tried to make a treaty with Russia ending the production of nuclear warheads, but it came out to nothing.

I could ramble on and on, but I doubt anyone really wants to read what I’m writing. So I guess my question is this:

What are your opinions on nuclear weapons, and do you believe that they should be kept or gotten rid of?

Now this is something. I really think they should be dismantled. Even though it makes a war end quicker. But think. It could end humanity.

>>2 The reason we have nukes is that we use them as a deterrent. Although we will use them if we have to, we don't want to. They are also the only Weapon of Mass Destruction we have. That means that if we're attacked with another WMD these are the only ones that we can retaliate with an in-kind response. We are also in the process o reducing the number of nukes we have along with Russia, but I wouldn't count on us getting rid of all of them.

It may end a war quickly but the place you just hit would've been useless by all the damage the nukes caused.

In all honesty...I strongly disagree with nukes. I see them mainly as a bluff. Say...Let me set the scene for you. Two countries are in conflict and then one goes,
"I've got a nuke! I'll start a war if you don't stop doing that!"
Then the other would say,
"I've got a nuke too! In fact, I've got quite a lot!"
When in reality, one of those countries probably doesn't have a single nuke, while the other knows and fears that if they start a Nuclear War, there will be nothing left. It's why I'm so damn persistant that the next World War wont be a Nuclear War, but instead a Cyber War. Think of how much humanity has become dependant on the internet. Most companies use the internet to control their stuff, like shipping, manufacturing, energy flow. If someone were to press the right buttons, a whole country could collapse.

Bump + Fun Fact: Around 15.6k sq mi in the US are occupied by nuclear weapon bases/facilities

>>5

Most of the power house countries do in-fact have nukes, though.

>>1 About the history of Nukes, I'll agree that only two (so far) have been used in wars....globally, nearly every major nation has used a crapton of said nukes in "weapon testing". Which leads to irradiated uninhabitable areas. The total count is somewhere in the middle of this Movie. Just pointing that out.

Imo...though war is unavoidable in certain cases, the usage of WMD in war is. you're trying to win the war, not wipe part of your home (Earth) off the face of the...Earth. The problem is not only with how much destruction is caused, but also the fallout and negative side effect the "leftovers" from the initial blast will have on the environment.

They seem pretty useful for getting rid of planets though, if we ever find a use in doing so.

The power of nuclear weapon is more in the threat than in actually using it.

^

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