Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear weapons — devices that derive explosive energy from nuclear reactions (fission or thermonuclear fusion) — represent humanity's most destructive technology. The US Manhattan Project (1942-45, led by J. Robert Oppenheimer) produced the first nuclear weapons; the Trinity test (July 16, 1945, New Mexico) was the world's first nuclear explosion. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 1945) are the only wartime nuclear weapons use. At the Cold War's peak, the US and USSR possessed 31,255 and 35,000 nuclear warheads respectively — enough to kill every person on Earth multiple times. The doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) — that any nuclear war would be suicidal — has paradoxically maintained peace between nuclear powers for 79 years. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT, 1968) attempts to prevent spread; 9 countries currently have nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer reportedly quoted the Bhagavad Gita after Trinity: 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'