The New Era of Warfare; NBC

Nuclear, biological and chemical weapons

Chapter One; A little bit of history on atomic weapons

To understand how a nuclear weapon works we need to look closely at what it is made off. The most known elements used are Uranium (U) and Plutonium (Pu) these contribute to large amounts of energy being released and the devastating effects of radiation afterwards. Both can be found in the periodic table or the table of Mendeleev.

When we look at the periodic table, we notice at the bottom there are two separate lines called the lanthanides and actinides. Most of these were man made. However some can be found in nature, such as Uranium and in very very small portions Pu. Though the Plutonium used in nuclear weapons is usually man-made through complex techniques. Uranium can be found in uraninite or also commonly reffered to as pitchblende that can be found in the crust of the earth.

It was firstly discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth, who named the element after the planet Uranus. He discovered the element while analyzing pitchblende samples from a silver mine. After it`s discovery, Uranium was used to color glass, also called Vaseline glass. Even as of today some companies (for example : Boyd Crystal Art Glass) under strict governmental regulations produce Vaseline glass.

Many other elements were later on found thanks to the naturally occurring pitchblende; In 1898 Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the element radium. And in 1895, William Ramsay was the first to isolate helium from pitchblende.

In 1897 natural radioactivity was discovered by Henri Becquerel by accident. Together with Marie and Pierre Curie he received half a Nobel price for physics in 1903.

However the first steps towards the use of Uranium in nuclear weapons happened in 1938. German physicist Otto Hahn discovered how to split the uranium atom through fission (= in which a neutron or a photon destabilizes the nucleus of an element and causes it to fragment.) This discovery frightened most of Europe and it`s allies.

Hungarian scientist and refugee Leo Szilard was convinced Nazi Germany would use this to create bombs, weapons of mass destruction. It was Szilard that wrote a letter to physicist Albert Einstein encouraging him to write a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt concerning the military implications of this discovery by Otto Hahn and the need for research on the subject by the US.

And that is exactly what President Roosevelt did. In 1939 he appointed the Briggs Committee to investigate nuclear fission. However creating nuclear weapons wasn`t their main priority.

Due to the growing fear of nuclear weapons being developed by Nazi Germany, the War Department`s Army Corps of Engineers 'took over' from the Brigss Committee in 1942. They set up "The Manhattan Project" in order to develop the first nuclear weapon.

By 1944 the US and the Great Britain realized Germany had no chance of developing an atomic bomb. It however did not slow down the "Manhattan Project" as Franklin Roosevelt stressed the need for the continuation of research and development of nuclear weapons.

Even though Germany did no longer pose as a threat, Japan did. It`s reluctance to surrender would have been very costly for the US and would have caused many more Americans to die. Therefore, the government no longer viewed the bomb as a defensive weapon to protect the world from the Nazis, but as a way to save American lives and money by shortening the war against Japan.

The nuclear age started on the 16th July 1945 as the US conducts the first nuclear test ever done. Its first nuclear weapon, code-named "Trinity", was tested in New Mexico.

On the 6th of August 1945, the US drops an uranium bomb on Hiroshima called "Little Boy". The 9th they drop a plutonium bomb called "Fat Man" on Nagasaki. Both killed over a total of 200,000 people. Some that died directly, others after months or even years.

In reaction to this immense and direct destruction of life the UN calls for elimination of atomic weapons on January the 24th of 1946. However the Soviet Union starts testing it`s nuclear weapons not too much later, trying to compete with it`s biggest rival; the US.

It succeeds into exploding a nuclear weapon called "First Lightening" in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. This will go into history as the second nation that successfully developed and tested a nuclear weapon. The atomic bomb eventually evolved into a vital tool of the political maneuvering between the two superpowers that emerged following the Second World War.

Other countries later on also developed and tested nuclear weapons such as the UK, France, China, India, Israel, Pakistan, North Korea, etc.

And even though many treaties have been made, trying to ban the development, testing and storage of Nuclear weapons , many countries still don`t abide by these rules.

On the site mentioned below, you can check out the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and all the countries that support it.
https://www.icanw.org/

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Chapter 2 ; How nuclear reactions work and the effects of radiation on living organisms and matter.

Will follow, hopefully soon.

Since it`s such a big theme I am breaking it up in separate pieces or chapter`s to keep it a bit readable.

Sources used for this chapter;

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-transuranic-elements-s/
https://www.coldwar.org/index.asp
https://www.ushistory.org/us/51f.asp
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9956-introduction-the-nuclear-age/
https://books.google.be/books?id=BWriuXxa7CYC&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=which+actinide+do+they+use+for+nuclear+weapons&source=bl&ots=AK7wpp2mqu&sig=kYaGiBXCpkJcM7gYY_nPjoSNHNU&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI1rqsk7rTAhWKYlAKHRXnCsMQ6AEIZDAI#v=onepage&q=which%20actinide%20do%20they%20use%20for%20nuclear%20weapons&f=false
https://chem.libretexts.org/Core/Inorganic_Chemistry/Descriptive_Chemistry/Elements_Organized_by_Block/4_f-Block_Elements/The_Actinides/1General_Properties_and_Reactions_of_The_Actinides
https://www.britannica.com/science/spontaneous-fission
https://whatisnuclear.com/articles/radioactivity.html
https://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-weapons/how-do-nuclear-weapons-work#.WPzce9SGPIW
https://www.icanw.org/the-facts/the-nuclear-age/

The New Era of Warfare; NBC

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