Beyond nuclear weapons (Aug 3)
http://physicsweb.org/article/world/18/8/1
It was 60 years ago this month that the worlds of physics and politics
collided in a way that will never be forgotten. On 6 August 1945 a
nuclear bomb exploded with a force equal to 13,000 tonnes of TNT above
the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on 9 August, a second,
more powerful bomb devastated Nagasaki. Since then, governments around
the world have employed large numbers of scientists and engineers to
design, build and test ever more powerful nuclear weapons. And since
1945 large numbers of people - including many of the physicists who
worked on the bomb at Los Alamos - have also campaigned against nuclear
weapons.
Complex future for US weapons (Aug 3)
http://physicsweb.org/article/world/18/8/2
Although the Bush administration is keen to develop new types of nuclear
weapons, Michael Levi is optimistic that the next few years are unlikely
to see any radical moves
Weapons around the world (Aug 3)
http://physicsweb.org/article/world/18/8/3
Nuclear weapons remain the most powerful force ever invented by
humankind. They can be constructed with either highly enriched uranium
(over 20% ^235U) or plutonium. Most modern nuclear weapons rely on a
combination of fission and fusion, using the initial nuclear release
from a core of uranium or plutonium to ignite a secondary fusion of
lighter elements. The first nuclear weapons developed by the US had
explosive yields equivalent to 10-20 kt of TNT, while most of today's
deployed weapons range from 100-500 kt in yield. In all, there are
approximately 27,600 nuclear weapons in existence.
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