Nuclear Technology Facts
Whether used by the military or for civilian purposes, nuclear technology transformed the second half of the 20th century. The science of nuclear technology dates back to 1896, when radioactivity was accidentally discovered during experiments by French physicists into properties of the atom. Since nuclear power has been offered as an alternative to fossil fuels, it is a major subject of the continuing global energy crisis.
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Background
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In the late 1890s, three French physicists, Henri Becquerel, Marie Curie and Pierre Curie, discovered radioactivity by isolating unstable elements such as radium and uranium. They would share the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in 1903. By the 1930s, further discoveries uncovered that when nuclei captured neutrons, nuclear fission occurs, which could lead to a chain reaction and a devastating explosion. During World War Two, the Manhattan Project, run by the U.S. Department of Defense and led by Robert J. Oppenheimer, worked toward developing a nuclear device, which eventually led to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
History
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Between 1945 and 1989, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in the “Cold War.” Each of the world superpowers feared that the other would use its nuclear arsenal. The term “mutually assured destruction” (MAD) became a military strategy for ensuring that both engaged countries would be destroyed if either launched a nuclear attack. Since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, the fear of nuclear armament has shifted to countries such as Iran, North Korea and Iraq.
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Weapons
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Nuclear weapons use nuclear fission reactions, forcing either plutonium or enriched uranium into supercritical mass. Once at that stage of a fission reaction, the power can reach the equivalent of 500,000 tons of TNT. The hydrogen bomb, which involves the fusion of hydrogen isotopes, was developed and tested in the United States in 1952. The only two deployments of nuclear weapons occurred in 1945, by the United States. Japanese casualties totaled between 80,000 and 120,000, if immediate death, radiation sickness and related deaths were combined. The countries that acknowledge having nuclear weapons include the U.S., France, India, Pakistan, China and North Korea.
Nuclear Power
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As opposed to nuclear weapons, nuclear power simulates controlled, non-explosive fission reactions. This energy is converted into thermodynamic electricity after the reaction. The reaction heats water, which then produces steam that can be converted to electricity. Nuclear power generated more than 15 percent of world electricity in 2009.
Disarmament
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During and after the Cold War, the topic of nuclear disarmament has been broached. U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) hoped for a “world free of nuclear weapons.” He initiated discussions with the USSR code-named START, which stood for Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. Though most of the discussion on nuclear disarmament has focused on nuclear weapons, the environmentalist organization Greenpeace has protested the use of nuclear power, as well.
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