1945-the first use of atomic weapons against a civilian population. The casualties are listed in the as over 100,000, but this is a conservative estimate. Nuclear fallout, and the effects of radiation will kill and wound many thousands more.
3)Operation Crossroads, Bikini Atoll. The US Navy detonates 2 atomic bombs-one above the water(Able), another 90 feet below the surface of the water(Baker). The tests subjected thousands of American servicemen to high levels of radiation, and many of them to suffer from radiologically-based illnesses and death. It also was the beginning of the America's displacement of native people of the Pacific.
4)RDS-1, Semipalatinsk, 1949-the first Soviet test of an atomic weapon. In order to evaluate the effects of the weapon, a town was constructed with wood-frame houses, vehicles,and over 1,500 animals. They were subjected to the heat, blast, and fallout effects of the bomb.
This type of testing, as well as that with human subjects, would be conducted on both sides of cold war. The hysteria that followed this would pressure the United States to develop a thermonuclear weapon.
5)Ivy Mike, 1952, Enewetak atoll-the first fusion device. The world enters the thermonuclear age.With the yield now exceeding 10 megatons, these are truly weapons of mass destruction. The upon the detonation, core is three times hotter than the sun, with temperature reaching 8000 degrees within a15 mile radius.
6) Joe-4,1953, Semipalatinsk-the first Soviet thermonuclear device. The thermonuclear gap was closed in less than a year.
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7) Castle Bravo, Bikini Atoll, 1954-the largest nuclear explosion in U.S. history. With a yield twice as large as expected, it was the greatest radiological contamination committed by the U.S., poisoning islanders who lived near the test site, as well the crew of the Japanese fishing boat Diago Fukuryu Maru. This test raised international concern over the safety of atmospheric nuclear testing.
8) Sputnik, 1957, USSR-the first human-made object to orbit the earth. Though it was a mission for scientific research, the concern over the possibility of nuclear-tipped missiles intensified in the United States. Sputnik's booster rockets, the R-7's, had been successfully tested previous to Sputnik-the world's first Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile.
>9)Tsar Bomba, Novsys Zemlya archipelago, 1961. At 57 megatons, it was the most powerful bomb ever built. Originally designed for a yield of 100 megatons, it was scaled down to reduce fallout. The fireball as over 5 miles wide, and the heat emitted could cause third degree burns 62 miles away. The mushroom cloud was 40 miles high-the height of seven Mount Everests.
10) 1962, Cuban Missile Crisis. We looked death right in the face. We almost blinked. I don't know how else I can say it....
11) Partial Test Ban Treaty, 1963. Banned the atmospheric, underwater, and outer space testing of nuclear weapons. The ban was intended to slow the arms race, and reduce the effects of nuclear fallout. It was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.
12) As of 2010, The United States, Russia, France, Britain, China, India, Pakistan, Israel (undeclared), Iran(assumed), and North Korea have nuclear weapons, with United States, Russia, France, Britain, and China possessing thermonuclear capabilities.
Though the Cold War is over, the specter of a nuclear war still looms. India and Pakistan pose a great threat as their decades long dispute, unsecured stockpiles, and fiery rhetoric is alarming to the international community. Combined with their dense population and close proximity, a nuclear exchange would be disaster for over a billion of the world's population.
Iran, Israel, and North Korea are also a cause for concern, with North Korea active in its ICBM program, and Iran and Israel both with "undeclared" status. There are seismic tests that reveal Israel's nuclear capability, and satellite picture of craters in Northern Iran suggest underground nuclear tests.
Still, the greatest nuclear threat is posed by nuclear terrorism. A small yield nuclear weapon or "dirty bomb," concealed by terrorists, pose a great risk.
-End To War Now
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