Every year on August 29, we observe the International Day against Nuclear Tests to respect the victims of the past and to remind the world of the persisting threat these tests pose to the environment and international stability.
More than 2,000 nuclear tests have been conducted over the past seven decades – from the South Pacific to North America, from Central Asia to North Africa. They have harmed some of the world’s most vulnerable peoples and pristine ecosystems. Nuclear Weapons started around the 1830’s in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada in the World War II. For the past 20 years, Nuclear Weapons have been in our lives, they were the weapons we used to fight our enemies and also protect our homeland. Nuclear weapons are a form of mass destruction that has explosive power that comes from a nuclear action.
The first nuclear test was conducted by the United States, on July 16, 1945, three weeks before the Hiroshima bombing on August 6, 1945. The nuclear test was given the codename “Trinity”, tested on the “Trinity Site”. The largest nuclear bomb ever tested was the “Tsar Bomba” by the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemlya, with an estimated yield of 50 megatons. It was so powerful it was said that the shockwave produced went around the world three times.
Nuclear weapons continue to present a real threat to humanity and other life on Earth. Scholars of international relations and policymakers share in the belief that the sheer power and destructiveness of nuclear weapons prevent them from being used by friends and foes alike. Nuclear weapons are not needed and have not been, for years. While nuclear weapons have influenced politics, public opinion, and defense budget, they have not had a significant impact on world affairs since World War II. Nuclear weapons are weapons of great destruction. Our government wastes over $33 billion a year of our tax money. Also, nuclear weapons pose serious health risks to those around them.
India had conducted its first nuclear test at the same site in 1974. India’s nuclear programme began in 1948 and since then it has covered a very long and significant ground. India’s security concern and nuclear environment compelled it to make these tests after a lapse of about a quarter century. Two nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan which eventually ended the Pacific War. After this attack, the Soviet Union started to develop their own atomic bomb project. Both Germany and the Soviet Union had more powerful weapons known as the hydrogen bomb. Hydrogen bombs are bombs that have a destructive power that comes from the rapid release of energy and uses an atomic bomb as its trigger.
Our history has shown us the terrifying and tragic effects of nuclear weapons testing, especially when controlled conditions go awry, and in light of the far more powerful and destructive nuclear weapons that exist today. There is no other weapon that causes such harm to the environment and humanity as the nuclear weapon. The nuclear path will lead us to a point of no return from the nuclear night and nuclear winter lasting a thousand years. We may be divided. But peace and friendship are the only alternatives for the survival of the civilisation. A famous saying goes might is always right. This is what exactly so-called developed nations want rest of the world to do. Every country has the right and should defend its territory by hook or by crook. The obstacles to disarmament are formidable. Concerns over nuclear weapons’ costs and inherent dangers have led to a global outpouring of ideas to breathe new life into nuclear disarmament. Among the negative sides of nuclear weapons is their maintenance and construction cost. Unlike other kinds of weapon, ownership of nuclear weapons can have a negative impact on the national budget. The question of whether countries should be allowed to have nuclear weapons is still under discussion and requires a solution to be found as soon as possible.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
