Will Iran Get the Bomb? A History of Nuclear Weapons and Proliferation - YAHOO!
The news cycle is saturated with news about Iran and its alleged ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons technology. How did we get here? Below is a short history of nuclear ambitions throughout the world.
First, a couple definitions: A nuclear weapon is often defined as a device that gets its destructive force from nuclear reactions. An atomic bomb is a bomb that gets its destructive power from nuclear fission, where atoms break apart. A thermonuclear bomb, or "hydrogen" bomb, is a bomb that gets its destructive power from nuclear fusion, where atoms fuse together akin to the process found in the Sun.
* According to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the atomic bomb was invented during World War II as Allied scientists worked near Los Alamos, New Mexico in the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop a weapon that could use a nuclear chain reaction to unleash an explosion many times greater than that of conventional explosives.
* On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated in a remote area in New Mexico known as the Trinity Site. The device has a yield (explosive force) of 10 kilotons, or 10,000 tons of conventional explosive TNT.
* Aug. 6, 1945: an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. On Aug. 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan. The unprecedented destruction helped convince Japan to surrender unconditionally to the Allies on Aug. 14. These are the only two nuclear weapons that have been used in warfare.
* Aug. 29, 1949: According to nuclearweaponarchive.org, the spread of nuclear weapons began in the late 1940s when the Soviet Union sought its own atomic bomb. Aided by well-placed spies, scientists in the Soviet Union completed a plutonium-based atomic bomb in 1949. The Soviet Union became the second nation to detonate a nuclear device in its "First Lighting/Joe-1" test.
* Oct. 2, 1952: According to greenpeace.org, the United Kingdom was the third nation to independently test an atomic weapon.
* Nov. 1, 1952: The first thermonuclear explosion, "Ivy Mike," occurred on the Pacific island of Eugelab, which was completely destroyed. The United States' first "hydrogen bomb" had a yield of 10.4 megatons, making it roughly 1,000 times stronger than the first atomic bomb.
* Nov. 22, 1955: The Soviet Union tests its first thermonuclear weapon.
* Nov. 8, 1957: The United Kingdom tests its first thermonuclear weapon.
* Dec. 3, 1960: France tests its first atomic weapon in the Pacific.
* Oct. 16, 1964: The People's Republic of China tests its first atomic bomb.
* June 17, 1967: The People's Republic of China tests its first thermonuclear weapon.
* Aug. 24, 1968: France tests its first thermonuclear weapon.
* May 18, 1974: India tests its first atomic bomb.
* 1977: According to the Federation of American Scientists, the Soviet Union detected that South Africa was preparing to test its first atomic weapon in an underground explosion. It reported its findings to the United States and diplomatic pressure caused South Africa to cancel the tests. In 1993 it was confirmed that South Africa had previously developed nuclear capabilities and then later dismantled them.
* Sept. 22, 1979: According to nuclearweaponarchive.org, a nuclear explosion appeared to have occurred in the Indian Ocean or South Atlantic in what has been dubbed the "Vela Incident." It is believed by many to be a test of an Israeli atomic weapon, perhaps built or tested in conjunction with South Africa.
* May 28, 1998: Pakistan tests its first atomic bomb in an underground explosion.
* Oct. 9, 2006: According to Bloomberg.com, the CIA confirmed that North Korea had tested an atomic bomb.
* 2011: According to the FAS, there are approximately 20,500 nuclear weapons in the world today. All but 1,000 are controlled by Russia (11,000) and the United States (8,500). Roughly 5,000 of these weapons are considered operational and some 2,000 are considered ready to use on short notice. The nine states deemed to have nuclear weapons in order of number of total weapons: Russia, the United States, France, China, the United Kingdom, Israel, Pakistan, India, and North Korea.