Nuclear Weapons.

Essay by Anonymous UserCollege, UndergraduateA+, March 1996

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In its attempts to harness the power of the atom, mankind

has itself in the possession of weapons with unbelievable,

destructive power. Nations now have the ability to destroy

entire cities from hundreds of miles away, in only minutes.

These weapons are nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons cost the

citizens of the United States billions of dollars in taxes each

year, the testing and maintenance of these weapons pose serious

health risks, and the actual need for these weapons is not and

has not been around for years. For the above reasons, I feel

the United States should reduce its nuclear arsenal.

Nuclear weapons derive their power from the energy

released when a heavy nucleus is divided, called fission or when

light nuclei are forced together, called fusion. In fission, a

nucleus from a heavy element is bombarded with neutrons. The

nucleus breaks into two pieces, releasing energy and two or more

neutrons. Each of these neutrons has enough energy to split

another heavy nucleus, allowing the process to repeat itself.

This is the chain reaction that makes nuclear weapons possible.

In a fusion nuclear device such as a hydrogen bomb, lightweight

nuclei are forced to fuse at very high temperatures into heavier

nuclei, releasing energy and a neutron. In order to squeeze the

two nuclei together, an atomic fission bomb is usually used. A

fusion reaction releases about four times more energy per unit

mass than a fission reaction. The United States supervised the

development of the atomic bomb under the code name Manhattan

Project, during World War II. The first nuclear chain reaction

occurred in December 1942, at the University of Chicago. Soon

after the first bomb test, atomic bombs were dropped on the

Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The first

hydrogen bomb was developed...