Nuclear Bombs During The Cold War

Dear Mr. Ban, I am formally writing this letter to ask for your intercession in the grave matter that has been threatening our world since Enrico Fermi successfully created the first nuclear reactor, which later on made way for the atomic and hydrogen bombs. Currently, nine countries are in possession of nuclear weapons. This is enough nuclear capability to wipe out the human race completely. This is what is worrisome. During the Cold War, we saw a considerable increase of nuclear armament in the United States and Russia. A most welcomed change occurred in 1987 when American President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty eliminating intermediate-range nuclear weapons. In an alarming change of events, Russia is in breach of the aforementioned treaty and has started producing these type of weapons. Also, as previously mentioned, more countries now possess this world-ending arsenal. …show more content…
Commonly, there are two types of nuclear weapons, the atomic and the hydrogen bombs. The core of an atomic bomb consists of fissile elements, and when the nuclei of these elements are split, an incredible amount of energy and heat is released which results in tremendous and devastating power. This whole process starts with fission. Fission takes place when either a plutonium or uranium nucleus is hit by a neutron, therefore splitting it into two lighter nuclei. As this happens, three neutrons are pushed out along with a huge amount of energy. These extra neutrons end up hitting more heavy nuclei nearby. This provokes a chain reaction, which is what causes an atomic explosion, once again because of the insanely huge amount of energy