Is Nuclear Disarmament Going To Be A Fantasy All Our Lives?

By Author: Ramesh Vittal
Total Articles: 26
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Nuclear power and its use for peaceful purposes has become part of modern life. However the use of the same power to make weapons and threat of a Nuclear War breaking anytime is a grim reality that we have learnt live with. The worst part of it is that we keep on stock piling more and more nuclear weapons without having any idea about whether we are ever going to use them, or rather, if at all we do the fear, of the irreparable damage and destruction they can cause is haunting us day in and day out. Why then, are we allowing such situation to be created in the first place? Is there no way to put a stop to such madness?

Let us take stock of the situation. There is an entire range starting from the mark series from mark 1 to mark 27 with an arsenal of nuclear guns to start with to the heaviest thermonuclear bomb the Mark 17. This hydrogen bomb, almost 25 feet long with a diameter of 5 feet weighs about 21 tons and can cause extensive damage if detonated. The disastrous radiation effects would linger for several years. There is an entire range of sophisticated weapons and missiles with multiple warheads that are capable ...
... of being targeted on far away cities and causing extensive damage. That is just the arsenal of one country that we are talking about. This so called elite and exclusive club has several members with the United States leading the pack followed by Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea with the possibility of Israel being a nuclear power as well. It is best not to think about the power of the combined arsenal of all these countries. Of these the first five come under the Non Proliferation Treaty whose sole objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons technology. Of the others that do not fall under the treaty, India is suspected to have diverted civilian nuclear technology for nuclear weapons purposes. This has caused concern and anger from Canada that had supplied the nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes. Thankfully, none of these weapons produced across the world have actually been deployed. There is good sense that prevails. However the point is that billions of dollars are being spent on continued research and production such weapons of mass destruction with the knowledge that they are never going to be used.

The will of the people has prevailed and led to the formation of various bodies like SALT or the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks that meet and deliberate regularly and agree in principle to restrict, if not stop production of these dreaded weapons. However, it is not enough to just stop, which is not being done anyway, what about the stock pile that is lying. They would be a potential hazard whenever there is a breach in security. Moreover, there is no safe way of defusing or deactivating these weapons without any risk. The risks involved in deactivating could be as serious as having them deployed. We have created a hopeless situation for ourselves and we alone are responsible for the consequences.

The need of the hour then, would be to put an effective stop to any further production, and concentrate our efforts and energies to try to undo what should have never have been done in the first place. If extensive research can help create something there should be some safe way to put an end to this entire unwanted and unwarranted legacy that we would be leaving behind for the future generations. Surely, the billions of dollars spent on this wasteful and dangerous exercise could have been put to much better use for the benefit of entire humanity. More related issues are discussed on programs that are aired by popular service providers like Verizon FiOS Deals