Nuclear Possibilities

By Walker McKnight

The subject of Nuclear Weapons is very complex. First, only 9 countries have Nukes, the United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. In total, the global nuclear stockpile is close to 13,000 weapons. The US and Russia have the most Nukes, each of them have at least 5,500 Nukes. It would only take 400 atomic missiles to wipe out humanity.

There is a culture around Nukes that is mainly all nervousness and death. For example, in the movie Oppenheimer, a man’s life is completely altered by creating a nuclear bomb, and not always for the better.

“The world's first nuclear weapons exploded on July 16, 1945, in New Mexico, when the United States tested its first nuclear bomb. Not three weeks later, the world changed. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It killed or wounded nearly 130,000 people. Three days later, the United States bombed Nagasaki. Of the 286,00 people living there at the time of the blast, 74,000 were killed and another 75,000 sustained severe injuries. Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945; it also resulted in the end of World War II.” - https://asiasociety.org/education. 

All of this means that because nuclear weapons were invented, major wars ended, but in that place, major suffering occurred in the places that were bombed. But all of that was a long time ago, when nuclear weapons were first beginning and there was no policy. Now, there are many policies preventing Nukes from being used. One example is the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons(TPNW) that prevents countries from participating in any nuclear weapons activity. This treaty has not been signed by all countries but it has been signed by quite a few. There are also many other treaties on this topic. I think that all countries should be very careful if they ever even think about using Nukes. 

Sources: 

https://www.icanw.org/nuclear_arsenalshttps://asiasociety.org/education/brief-history-nuclear-weapons-states#:~:text=The%20world's%20first%20nuclear%20weapons,or%20wounded%20nearly%20130%2C000%20people.