http://www.howitworksdaily.com How It Works 061
DID YOU KNOW? In 1939 Einstein signed a letter to President Roosevelt warning him of possible German nuclear weapons
ARMS RACE
WordsbyScottDutfield© AlamyHow two feuding nations
stockpiled nuclear weapons
ina race to become the dominant military power on Earth
E
ver since the atom was split in 1917 by
physicist Ernest Rutherford, scientists and
militar y engineers alike have worked to
weaponise science, culminating in some of the
most devastating attacks in human histor y.
In 1945, t wo A merican atomic bombs, dubbed
‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’, were devastatingly
dropped on t wo Japanese cities, Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, marking the end of World War II. Seen
as a prominent nuclear force at the time, the US
had displayed to the world its militar y power,
and in turn stoked a political fire bet ween itself
and the USSR, the countr y now know n as Russia.
By 1949 the USSR had developed and detonated
its first nuclear bomb, RDS-1, also know n as ‘First
Lightning’, and almost like the sound of a
starting gun, it signalled the start of a nucleararms race w ith the US. Who would be the first to
cross the finish line, and what would that finish
line mean? Total annihilation, perhaps?
Both nations continued developing and
stockpiling nuclear weapons in the follow ing
years. However, in 1952 the US pulled ahead w ith
the creation of the hydrogen bomb. Prev ious
atomic bombs, such as those used on Hiroshima,
utilised the explosive energ y produced in
nuclear fission. Uranium and plutonium were
used in this process to create a chain reaction of
splitting atoms. A hydrogen bomb uses nuclear
fusion w ith the addition of tritium and a
hydrogen isotope called deuterium. In this
reaction atoms are forced together, releasing
explosive energ y around 1,000 times more
powerful than the WWII bombs.