Question

Do a project on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans. Should the production of WMDs be banned?

Answer 1

The concept of Weapons of Mass Destruction appeared during War World II after the use of atomic bombs. In the mass consciousness, weapons of mass destruction are usually associated first with atomic weapons, although the concept includes certain chemical and biological weapons.

The atomic bomb was used only twice in World War II, in bombarding the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945) by the United States. The first bomb employed uranium-235 and produced an explosion equivalent in power to approximately 15 kilotons of TNT gunpowder. The second bomb employed plutonium and was equivalent in power to approximately 21 kilotons of TNT gunpowder.

On August 7, 1945 the General Staff of Japan received an alarming telegram from the Hiroshima region claiming that the city was completely destroyed by one bomb. Approximately 130 thousand people were killed because of the bombardments of both cities, and both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were completely destroyed. The number of injured also numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and the consequences of burns and radiation were apparent in bombardment victims for many years, often including the next gene

The process of radioactive isotope (uranium-235 or plutonium-239) fission is the basis of the action of atomic weapons. A mammoth amount of energy is generated in this process. The dissipation of energy in an atomic bomb explosion occurs in the following approximate ratio: bomb blast and wind–50%; thermal rays–35%; and (radioactive) radiation–15%. These are the three main striking factors of an atomic explosion.

An even more powerful weapon, the hydrogen fusion bomb, was created several years after the A-bomb, and was created practically simultaneously in USA and in the former Soviet Union. The power of the H-bomb is hundreds of times higher than the power of an A-bomb. The process of hydrogen isotope fusion is the basis of the thermonuclear weapon action. The start of this reaction, however, must be initiated by a nuclear fission explosion.

On November 1, 1952, a 10.4 megaton thermonuclear explosion code-named MIKE, ushered in the thermonuclear age (it was an explosion of a special model of the device). The island of Elugelab in the Eniwetok Atoll in Pacific was completely vaporized.

The first H-bomb was exploded in the USSR in August, 1953, followed on March, 1, 1954, by the American explosion of a more powerful hydrogen bomb (approximately 15 megatons). The Soviets responded with the most powerful H-bomb explosion yet, in the Soviet Union on October 15, 1961, over the Novaya Zemlya (New Earth) island (in the Polar Ocean) at a height of 4000 meters (approximately. 13,000 feet) over the Earth. Its power was almost 50 megatons. A gigantic fireball was created by the explosion that reached to the height of about 67 km (41.5 miles), and its light was seen for a distance of more then 1000 km (621 miles). The explosion also resulted in a blast of wind that was felt for hundreds of kilometers.

The creation of the atomic bomb in the USA during World War II was an exceptional scientific phenomenon. The interval between the discovery of the physical fusion process that is the basis of the weapon action, and the moment of its first test (July 16, 1945, in the New Mexicodesert) was only several years, and up to the end of this test, its creators were not absolutely sure that the test would be successful. The United States committed an enormous amount of scientific and monetary resources towards the creation of the atom bomb, and a new branch of industry was formed.