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=__//Q: What effects do Nuclear Weapons  have on the Environment ? //__ =

__Table of Contents__

 * ===What are Nuclear Weapons?===
 * ===Nuclear weapon testing===
 * ===Environmental effects of nuclear weapons===
 * ===Conclusion===
 * ===Citations===

[[image:atomic_bomb_explosion.jpg width="471" height="339" align="left" caption="Atomic Bomb"]]What are Nuclear Weapons?
Nuclear weapons are explosive materials which gain its devastating and harmful power from nuclear reactions. There are two types of nuclear weapons: nuclear fission reactions and nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear fission reactions are also referred to as atomic bombs and nuclear fusion reactions are normally called thermonuclear weapons or hydrogen bombs. (atomicarchive.com)

Nuclear weapons get their energy from joining particles inside an atom. These devices are so strong that even one small nuclear bomb could destroy a whole city; even the biggest bomb is not as strong as a nuclear bomb. These bombs were used by the United States against Japan twice during World War 2.

Nuclear weapon testing
China, France, India, Pakistan, Russia, the United States, and United Kingdom have performed and tested over 2000 nuclear explosions. About 500 were tested above ground and rest were tested underground. Nuclear weapons testing has a very negative effect on human health and the environment because global fallout due to nuclear testing will result in over two million cancer victims and other health issues. (Nuclear Files.org)

The picture of the chart shown is a chart of the list of countries that have nuclear weapons. It shows their year of first test of those weapons, the amount of nuclear weapons they have, and the number of active nuclear weapons.

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Nuclear Weapons Test VIDEO
(youtube.com)

media type="youtube" key="neom4tB99Bo" height="344" width="425"

[[image:8d257706c71ad48d06f11888063ad0ffe9f701af_m.jpg width="374" height="354" align="left"]]Environmental effects of nuclear weapons
"making other threats to the environment pale into insignificance. One thermo-nuclear bomb [hydrogen bomb] can have an explosive power greater than all the explosives used in wars since the invention of gunpowder. In addition to the destructive effects of blast and heat, immensely magnified by these weapons, they introduce a new lethal agent -ionising radiation- that extends lethal effects over both space and time." (Tri-Denting It Handbook, p.94) (CNDUK)

As stated in the quote, nuclear bombs are so powerful that it will destroy anything near the explosion. If you are standing within six square miles, then there is a chance of you getting killed from the gamma rays.

//"In the dim light of a hospital room, seven year old Jimmy was remembering the day on which he was told that he had leukaemia. He remembered his mother's tears, his father's bewildered// anger, the alien feeling of the hospital's environment. Then his mind replayed the nausea and //diarrhoea caused by radiation therapy and chemotherapy, his hair falling out and kids laughing at him… Jimmy died gently, exhausted at having lost so much blood. His tissue had broken down completely, and he was bleeding from every body opening. His bed looked like a battlefield."// [No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth, Rosalie Bertell, The Women's Press, London 1985, p.1] (Nuclear files.org)

This is an article about a young boy who got a disease from the radiation therapy and he eventually died. This radiation comes from a nuclear weapon created or tested and it spreads across the whole earth and some people, like Jimmy, get infected from the radiation. This article shows us the severeness of the nuclear weapon production and how it is bad for the human health.

Conclusion
Nuclear weapons are a big threat to the world. Countries that own nuclear weapons are always suspected of using them to bomb another country some day. As stated before, a nuclear weapon’s power and force is so great that it can destroy a city with just one single bomb. Nuclear weapons have a devastating effect to the world. When there is an explosion a couple miles away from a person, there is a big chance that he or she would be killed from the force released from the explosion.

Barack Obama, the current president of the United States, announced that his goal was for a world that was free of nuclear weapons. (Time Magazine)

I also agree with President Obama that this world should be free of nuclear weapons for one reason: safety. Nuclear weapons, as I said before, is such a threat to the people and the consequences of an explosion is very severe. These bombs would just kill everyone and destroy everything around them. However, I think that getting completely rid of nuclear weapons is almost impossible as many countries already possess these weapons and there are so many of these in the world.