Profiles of the nine "nuclear nations"Įight different nations around the world have successfully detonated nuclear weapons, and a ninth appears to have the capability to do so. As of 2021, there are estimated to be just over 13,000 available nuclear warheads in the world. This nuclear proliferation reached its peak of approximately 70,000 missile-mounted nuclear warheads in 1986, then began to decline sharply with mutual disarmament agreements such as Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) of 1987 and the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks that began in the '80s and continued off and on into the early '10s. The use of nuclear weapons to end World War II sparked an arms race between the nations of the world, particularly the United States and the newly formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), in which each country sought to manufacture and prepare as many nuclear weapons as possible. Faced with the threat of continued bombings, Japan chose to surrender, ending World War II. Although clouds and smoke made aiming difficult and caused the bomb to detonate nearly two miles from its intended target, the blast nonetheless killed an estimated 35,000-40,000 people immediately (and roughly 60,000 injured), with long-term effects raising the death toll to 39,000-80,000 lives over time. bombers detonated a second nuclear weapon, this time a plutonium-core, implosion-type bomb codenamed "Fat Man", just above Nagasaki, Japan. On August 9, 1945, a mere three days after the nuclear weapon hit Hiroshima, U.S. to plan a follow-up attack on a second target. Yet, despite the bomb's unprecedented destructive power-as well as a renewed declaration of war from the Soviet Union-the Japanese government vowed to fight on. The bomb exploded with a force estimated to be equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT, killing an estimated 66,000-80,000 people (long-term effects such as radiation poisoning and bombing-induced leukemia would eventually raise this estimate to 90,000-140,000), injuring 69,000 more, and leveling 4.7 square miles of the city. The first nuclear weapon used during war was a "uranium gun" fission bomb, codenamed "Little Boy", dropped from a Boeing B-29 Superfortress onto the city of Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. Nuclear weapons have been used during wartime on only two occasions, both by the United States toward the end of World War II. Today, "atomic bomb" has been replaced by "nuclear weapon," which is also used as a general blanket term referring to any of these weapons, and "hydrogen bomb" has been replaced by "thermonuclear weapon." Hiroshima and Little Boy Historically, fission weapons were referred to as atomic/atom bombs and fusion weapons were called hydrogen bombs. These warheads use a fission or boosted fission reaction to set off a pure fusion reaction, resulting in an up to 100x increase in destructive power. Staged thermonuclear weapons - The most destructive type of nuclear weapon.Boosted fission weapons - These weapons achieve double the destructive power of the fission (atom-splitting) explosion by augmenting it with a bit of fusion (atom combining) fuel, which enhances the reaction.Fission weapons release energy by splitting atoms, typically of uranium or plutonium. Pure fission weapons - The simplest type, and the only type used in warfare thus far.Historically speaking, there are three basic types of nuclear weapon: A single modern nuke carries the power of 100,000 (or more) tons of TNT and could kill more than half a million people if detonated in a densely populated area. At its most basic, a nuclear weapon is the most powerful form of explosive known to man. North Korea - none, but material to build 40-50 nuclear warheadsĪny discussion about which countries possess nuclear weapons should start by outlining what nuclear weapons are.United States of America - 5,550 nuclear warheads.Every Country in the World that Has Nuclear Weapons (and How Many They Have) What countries have nuclear weapons? In the world today, nine countries currently possess nuclear weapons, including the five major countries that occupy the five permanent slots on the United Nations Security Council.
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