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Are Nuclear

Weapons Good or Bad for the


World?

Jiuan Jones

Mr.Spoth
Nuclear weapons are powerful destructive devices that receives their power from nuclear
reactions. Nuclear weapons have been used twice in nuclear warfare both times used by the
United States of America against Japan in WW2. After the two bombings, nuclear weapons have
been detonated over two thousands occasions for demonstration and testing. Some think nuclear
weapons are just too destructive in power to be kept in human reach. On the other hand some
believe that they are necessary to keep other nations in check from attacking their homeland. The
pros and cons of having nuclear weapons will be stated in this writing.
Throughout the 1930's scientific breakthroughs led to the atomic bomb production. Fearing
the Nazi development of a nuclear weapon, the best scientific minds from around the world
began to join the Manhattan project to beat the German forces to it. The Manhattan project was a
secret military project made in 1942 to produce the first atomic weapon. There where scientist
like Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, and other brilliant minds recruited to work on
the project directed by American physicist Robert Oppenheimer and general Leslie R. Groves.
There were three other facilities that had the job of researching and production. The three
facilities were located in Oak ridge, Tennessee; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New
Mexico. The Hanford facility produced the weapons plutonium and the Oak Ridge facility
produced the uranium needed to power the weapon. The Los Alamos facility is where the nuclear
weapons became assembled. Los Alamos created four weapons. Two of them named little boy
and fat man were actually used in 1945. The Manhattan Project was discontinued in 1946 to
become apart of the Atomic Energy Commission. With the surrender of the German forces in

May 1945, the scientist that were involved in the development of a nuclear weapon at the
Manhattan project had yet to develop a working weapon. The scientist working at the project
wanted to turned their research into a more peaceful purpose. U.S president Harry Truman saw
the advantage to use the nuclear bomb towards the Soviet Union. On August 6, 1945 the first
nuclear weapon was tested on live targets. The U.S nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
The bomb after effect either killed the people it hit or affected the survivors in other ways. The
survivors would either suffer a severe fever, bleeding, and throat pain. The total amount of deaths
were 200,000. A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki by the the U.S which had the same
effects and ending up killing 140,000. Japan surrendered to America because the mass
destruction of the the two nuclear weapons used during the period of war. Throughout the 1950s
and 1960s The U.S and USSR competed for nuclear supremacy. Both countries developed a new
type of nuclear weapons called ballistic missiles which could be fired from submarines and
launch from longer distance. Both country wanted to have the power to launch an attack capable
of destroying their counterpart. This led to the idea of if one side attacked first, both sides would
be at the point of a collapse if the other side attacked. The fear of this also led to the production
of more nuclear weapons. The issue came to a climax in 1962 when the U.S discovered that
Russia was placing nuclear missiles in Cuba which would give an opportunity for a nuclear
missile attack on U.S land. They came to a compromise that avoided a nuclear weapons being
used between the two superpowers. In the meantime, other countries such as the british, the
french, china, and other major countries. Many politicians around the world wanted to reduce the
tensions caused by nuclear weapons and reduce the spread of them as well. In 1963 many
superpowers such as the U.S and Russia signed the Nuclear Ban Treaty that made both of them
not test no more nuclear weapons. Soon many other countries followed like China, France, and

Britain. In 1970 nuclear weapons continued to grow and treaties were broken but there were no
negative effects except a few threats of nuclear war. In 1996, all of the countries in the United
Nations signed a treaty to ban all nuclear tests. By the end of the 20th century many of the
nuclear countries no longer had a monopoly of atomic nuclear weapons. Even though the
monopoly has dwindled countries like India, Korea, Pakistan, Libya, and south Asia still
continued to run experiments and run test with nuclear weapons. There are an estimate around
10,144 according to Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Nuclear Notebook 2014, the total number
of nuclear weapons is estimated at 10,144.[4]
Like so many things that occur in our lives, the use of weapons can be used for good or bad.
Even weapons such as nuclear weapons has their place among other technology which nations
are looking for to be secure as possible. With the growing numbers of potential threats and the
sheer number of nuclear weapons in the world, nations like the U.S. can protect themselves
against any potential enemy which might have the resources to do major harm against them.
There are three major pros about nuclear weapons like global defense, power supply, and war
deterrent. Nuclear weapons are likely the key deterrents to major threats or rogue nations. With
nuclear weapons in possession of nations they are most likely not to be attacked by other nations.
The better a nation can defend itself from potential threat the more likely no one will even bother
them which means more peacetime for the nation. The fact that a nation has nuclear weapons, it
makes diplomatic talks easier since no one wants to get in a conflict with a nation that has
nuclear weapons. Just having nuclear weapons provides a nation with a political advantage over
nations that does not possess nuclear weapons. A nation that owns nuclear weapons is feared and
respected internationally. Another advantage is the power supply nuclear weapons provide.
Nations that have nuclear weapons can benefit from the power and whatever else come with that

power. No one wants their homeland attacked especially by nuclear weapons and because of that,
most nation will do anything to avoid that from happening. The threat of nuclear weapons helps
other nations communicate and help each other out. Nuclear weapons can also be used to be a
war deterrent against opposing forces. Small nations with nuclear weapons can stand a fighting
chance against larger nations which would have more resources backing them. This is also a way
to increase peace in a nation and reduce the odds of opposing forces attacking them. Alliances
work kind of the same way, when a nation is allied with another nation that has nuclear weapons,
they depend on their alliance to have their back in a conflict. Nuclear weapons provides
protection and they have ended conflicts that could have went bad over the years. Also if a nation
leader is dangerous and decides to attack another nation with nuclear weapons, it would be
intelligent if some other nation had the resources to combat such type of weapon with nuclear
properties with their own nuclear weapon. Removing nuclear weapons would mean nothing if an
enemy of a country decides to engage in nuclear war and decides to build their own nuclear
weapons and use it as a threat against other nations which would be helpless to combat such a
force if they do not have nuclear weapons themselves to uses as protection.
Even though nuclear weapons can provide security and protection for nations in the world they
also have disadvantages that can not only hurt a nation but the entire world. Having or making
nuclear weapons can run a major toll on a nation because of their cost and maintenance. Like
everything a nation owns or operates, nuclear weapons takes huge amounts of money to make
and maintain. Nuclear weapons are so different from natural resources because of their cost so
they can affect a nation's treasury. This is one negative to a nation because if the nuclear weapons
cost affects a nation then it makes it difficult for a nation to invest in other areas that they need
and it can cause political criticism. There are only a couple of nations that can have nuclear

powered weapons and on the other hand there are some nations that are wealthy and productive
that have survived without them. Environmental impact is also one major negative about nuclear
weapons. There is an amazing amount of damage that nuclear weapons have done to the world.
The radiation from the use of a nuclear weapon can cause massive firestorm that can destroy
huge amounts of land. The radiation and fallout can still continue to do damage after a nuclear
warhead exploded and the recovery of the targeted area can take many years. Nuclear weapons
once detonated on it target, can leave the resident population with long term health problems or
huge loss in an area's population. Even though the explosion of a nuclear bomb can kill the
populist of a targeted zone, the radiation caused by the explosion can cause many health
problems like cancer, tumors, and more to it victims. When an area is hit by a nuclear weapon,
the area becomes uninhabitable for a long time. The local wildlife will die and any local eco
system will be destroyed. The time where the area becomes uninhabitable can be decades or even
centuries because of the radiation which is a major negative of the use of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear weapons are destructive weapons that has the potential to destroys an entire cities and
destroy everything in it path. Another con of nuclear weapons is accidental use. Mistakes are not
so uncommon in the world in general. Nuclear weapons can be launched because of human error
which might lead to negative effects that would lead to something greater like a nuclear war.
Computer programs that also control the launch of nuclear weapons could malfunction which
could lead to a nuclear winter. A nuclear winter is if nuclear weapons around the world were
launched on a global scale leading to tragedy and disaster. A nuclear winter would happen if
enough nuclear weapons are launched or if a nuclear weapon is exploded in the upper
atmosphere. The sun would be blocked out by air debris in which would kill most plants,

animals, and human life. The event of an nuclear winter would lead into governments falling
apart leading into world wide chaos never before seen.
Some say nuclear weapons are necessary to keep everybody in check to keep the balance, other
say they shouldn't even be in mankind's hand due to human nature. I believe that having nuclear
weapons in the reach of human hands is a huge unfavorable idea. I believe having nuclear
weapons is a negative because of their destructive capability. Not only are nuclear weapons are
destructive they in the hands of corrupt men, women, and faulty computer systems that have the
power to launch weapons of death on any nation they see fit. If one nation decides to not agree
with another nation the opposite force might decides to use nuclear weapons as a threat to show
that they want their way or else and uses their inventory of nuclear weapons to show how much
power they have ands kills an entire population over a disagreement. I'm just saying nuclear
weapons are capable of leveling entire cities why would it be a good thing for them to still be in
human clutches. I think every county that has nuclear weapons should disarm the because it only
takes one nation, one nation to set something of against a nation and boom a nuclear war is
created even if the nuclear weapons were launched on accident. I also believe that car fuels are
not the only reason for global warming, I believe that all the nuclear weapon testing has also
played a role in global warming. Also with the number of nuclear weapons in the world there can
be a chance of them being sold by a corrupt nation. In my opinion nuclear weapons are just
dangerous to have in general they just have too much power. I think that all nations that have
nuclear weapons should disarm all of them because of their potential destruction. Nuclear
weapons are just instruments of fear.The money used on the development of nuclear weapons go
to other things in nations like education, healthcare, social security, and etc. nuclear weapons
takes millions and billions of money out a nation's government just to create them. I think having

nuclear weapons are such a must have for nations defenfense, nations risk the security of their
citizens they're trying to protect. I believe it is highly immoral to risk the security of a nation on a
threat to destroy a opposite nation cities and people. This process is called nuclear deterrence
which i think is dangerous because it places human life in jeopardy of annihilation. Not having
nuclear weapons worldwide prevent terrorist groups from attacking nations with nukes. I just
think that nuclear weapons should be disarmed worldwide so there can't be no threats of human
extinction due to nuclear weapons.
Nuclear weapons are powerful destructive devices that receive their power from nuclear
reactions. Nuclear weapons have been used over the years for mass testing and warfare. Some
think that nuclear weapons are just too destructive in power to be kept in human reach. I also
agree that nuclear weapons are too destructive to be kept in the reach of humans because humans
can be corrupted and tempted to do something to start something that might end life as we know
it. On the other hand others believe that they are necessary to keep other nations in check from
attacking their beloved nation.

bibliography and citations


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"Pros and Cons of Nuclear Weapons - RFnd." HRFnd. N.p., 28 Apr. 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.
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