Why the Need for Nuclear Weapons?

Why the Need for Nuclear Weapons?

Nuclear Weapons, should they be abolished or made to kill off the world? I

understand that since World War II, many countries have started to become nuclear

nations. United States, Russia, China, and Israel are just a few. These countries are

major superpowers, besides Israel, and that can be a very dangerous thing for them all to

have nuclear weapons and have the possibility of one supreme entity deciding that they

want to launch a nuke at someone. Who knows, someone could be making the nuke and

it backfires on them and their own nation will have extreme results. Notably, even the

nuclear reactors that are stationed all over the world are a risk to our Earth. Nuclear

radiation being spread over just a little area could cause some really bad effects such as

people dying, having flash burns, animal and plant life becoming extinct within the

radiation area, polluted water, mutations, and nothing but a charred area of everything

around the radiation area. These effects would be the aftermath of any nuclear crisis. In

the process of convincing you that nuclear weapons should be abolished, I plan on giving

you examples of what has happened over the last half a century and our time growing as a

nuclear age. These examples will cover the main points of the nuclear age that has taken

place in our lives. The first major time that nuclear weapons were used was in World War II. The

United States decided to use a nuclear weapon on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after a clear

warning, and made Japan surrender to the U.S.A. and their allies. The nuclear weapon

that they used was the atomic bomb or known as the “A” bomb (History Channel). The

effects the “A” bomb had on Japan was devastating. The first atomic bomb was released

on Hiroshima, killing 80,000 people (History Channel). The second bombing was on Nagasaki, killing 40,000 more Japanese (History Channel). The aftermath of the two

bombing caused another 100,000 slow and painful deaths (History Channel). Western scientists, servicemen, and journalists went to Japan to take a toll of the

devastation of what the atomic bomb did to that nation (History Channel). What they saw

was horrendous in their eyes, and made our country re-evaluate ever using the atomic

bomb again (History Channel). The scene they saw before them was charred landscape

all around the bombing area, hideously burnt people, and people coughing and urinating

blood waiting to die from the radiation poisoning (History Channel). Not only does the

people suffer, but the plants and animals die off too. So, what was worse than World War II and the nuclear war? The nuclear age and

the Cold war. The Cold war had to be a devastating time to the United States and

Russian civilians. It was a race to see who could produce the most nuclear weapons and

keeping it a secret of how many nuclear warheads that each nation had. It was a time

where egos ran rampaged and felt the need to take control and scare the world. The consequences that could have happened if the Cold war became a nuclear war

would have been irreparable. The direct consequences would be the mildest imaginable

outcome of 35 million people dead and 10 million seriously hurt in each country with

one-half the total industrial capacity of each side destroyed (Nissani). After 40 years of

war being over local and global fallout may have caused 1 million thyroid cancers,

300,000 other cancers, 1.5 million thyroid abnormalities, 100,000 miscarriages, and

300,000 genetic defects (Nissani). The indirect consequences would have been genetic risks, environmental,

economic, international, social consequences, human health, and the extinction of all mankind and animal and plant life (Nissani). With genetic risks and the possibilities that

nuclear war increases the number of genetic defects, war might reduce the quality of the

human gene pool to some unknown extent (Nissani). The environmental impact would

be altered conditions created by a nuclear war, so a percent of the Earth’s species would

become extinct, some pest populations might temporarily increase, and most natural

communities might undergo radical transformations (Nissani). Extinction would have

been the loss of everything, human, plant, animals, and ocean mammals (Nissani). One of the biggest nuclear incidents that happened in our time was the accident at

Chernobyl when a reactor exploded. Chernobyl was the result of a flawed reactor design

that was operated by unreliable trained personnel. Thirty people had died in the

Chernobyl accident. The accident caused the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into

the environment ever recorded for any civilian operation. Large amounts of radiation

lasted for as long as 10 days. The impact was terrible. People that lived within a 30 kilometer radius had to be

evacuated so they wouldn’t risk the possibility of dying because of radiation poisoning.

No animals or plant life thrived around the main radiation area. The trees there all

became red because they lost all their ability to grow. Some even say that the trees

glowed. The Chernobyl reactor number 4 was buried under tons of concrete, where

radiation probably still leaks today. Recently there has been another nuclear reactor scare. This was due to an

earthquake and a tsunami that Japan experienced. The earthquake reported being a 9.0.

By the time the reactors were still trying to shutdown the aftermath of the earthquake, the

tsunami, hit the reactors and flooded the diesel generators causing the fuel rods to overheat (Technica). Workers are pumping nitrogen into one of the reactors at Japan 's

damaged nuclear plant in an attempt to prevent an explosion caused by dangerously

overheated fuel rods(Technica). The crisis at the Fukushima plant came after technicians

finally stopped a leak of highly radioactive water from the power station that dramatically

increased the amount of radiation found in nearby ocean waters(Technica).
Hydrogen explosions destroyed the outer housings of two of the plant 's six reactors

during the first days of the nuclear crisis that followed the earthquake and tsunami

(Technica). Highly radioactive water has accumulated in lower levels of several reactors,

following weeks in which workers pumped in massive amounts of water to prevent fuel

rods from overheating. The water needs to be removed before workers can complete

repairs to the permanent cooling systems (Technica).

Since the earthquake, the reactors are now being put into a “Cold” shutdown and

will eventually be encased in concrete just like Chernobyl (Technica). Americans on the

west coast are still wondering if they will experience some sort of radiation poisoning

from either the ocean water or just the exposure of radiation seeping and finding it’s way

to the American coast (Technica).

Nuclear weapons need to be abolished. That is also including the nuclear plants

around the world. All it causes is death, pain, defects, cancer, and radiation poisoning to

everything in its path. Our world needs to come up with something a little less violent so

that the world doesn’t go extinct. Maybe nuclear anything should have never been

invented, but we are a world of thinkers and someone would have come up with

something eventually. We have too many minerals on the Earth that could be used

to our advantages, but they should all be used in a way where nuclear weapons aren’t made.

Bibliography

1. History Channel. Atomic bomb-World War II

2. Nissani, M 1992. Lives in the Balance: the Cold War and American Politics, 1945-1991

3. Technica, Ars. Wired Science. 03-18-11.

www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/japan-nuclear-crisis/

Bibliography: 1. History Channel. Atomic bomb-World War II 2. Nissani, M 1992. Lives in the Balance: the Cold War and American Politics, 1945-1991 3. Technica, Ars. Wired Science. 03-18-11. www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/japan-nuclear-crisis/