Nuclear Weapons Research Paper

The invention of nuclear weapons and the race to make them, changed the way that other countries dealt with each other and their foreign policy. The process of the arms race and the science behind it was one of the factors of the cold war and tensions between countries.

When Otto Hahn set up an experiment to fire an electron into an uranium atom, little did he know that that would set off a chain reaction, pun intended, that would that would end with the world shaken and countries with weapons powerful enough to destroy small states. Otto Hahn was shocked when he fired a electron into a uranium atom, the nuclear atom split in half and released a very small amount of power. However, those two atoms would then collide with others and this

Now there were two world powers that both had weapons of devastation power. They were enemies, with two different sets of ideals and values. Both felt threatened by the other and now both could now destroy each other. The nuclear age had begun, for the first time humanity could destroy itself and the trinity test was a symbol for self-destruction at the hands of our own. The effort to build a nuclear bomb had a 3 billion dollar budget. DB P. 36.

Fifteen years later the Tsar Bomba was built, The Tsar bomba was the biggest hydrogen bomb ever made, with an explosive power of 57 megatons. TB-BB

The way the Tsar Bomba worked was the primary fission reaction was used to compress a thermonuclear payload this would string together hydrogen fission reactions. TB-BB. The Tsar Bomba had a fireball radius of nearly 10,000 vertical feet and had a 210,000 foot mushroom cloud. The light generated by the reaction could be seen from over 1,000 km away. The force wave generated by the reaction circumvented the earth 3 times. TB-BB. The force of the Tsar Bomba explosion registered 5.0 on the richter scale. The shockwave it generated equals 300 psi. TB-BB. At 50 psi the maximum wind speed is 934

TMP-IS. The AEC declared that atomic energy should not only be deployed in a nation's defence but also to promote public welfare, and strengthen free competition in private enterprise. TMP-IS. Truman confirmed the civilian control of atomic energy by signing the Atomic Energy Act on August 1, 1946. TMP-IS. Eisenhower proposed that the nuclear powers contribute some of their stockpile to an international atomic energy agency (IAEA) in Austria Oct 1, 1957. TMP-IS. On August 26, 1964, Johnson brought to an end an eighteen-year government monopoly of nuclear materials by signing into law the "Private Ownership of Special Nuclear Materials Act', allowing private entities to assume title to special nuclear materials. By the end of 1974 two hundred and thirty-three nuclear central-station generating units, with a capacity of 232,000 megawatts, were either in operation, under construction, or on order in the United States. TMP-IS. Advance in medical diagnostic techniques based on the use of radioisotopes and radiation machines added to the skills of the medical profession, while immunological research provided the knowledge needed for successful transplants. Other medical breakthroughs included the treatment of Parkinson's Disease, the preservation of cells for transfusion, and the introduction of small accelerators to produce short-lived