History of Nuclear Weapons

1. History of Nuclear Weapons Mr. Homburg American Studies

2. Nations that are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons are sometimes referred to as the nuclear club. • There are currently eight countries that have successfully detonated nuclear weapons. • five of which are recognized as nuclear weapon states: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China • Four non-parties to the treaty are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel.

3. Blue-NPT Countries with nuclear weapons • Red-Other countries with nuclear weapons • Black- Countries accused of having nuclear weapon programs • Green-Countries who formerly possessed nuclear weapons

4. Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty • treaty to limit the spread (proliferation) of nuclear weapons. • The treaty came into force on 5 March 1970, and currently there are 189 countries party to the treaty • Based on a three-pillar system, with an implicit balance among them: • non-proliferation, • disarmament, and • the right to peacefully use nuclear technology.

5. Terms of NPT • These five Nuclear Weapon States agree not to transfer "nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices" and "not in any way to assist, encourage, or induce" a non-nuclear weapon state (NNWS) to acquire nuclear weapons (Article I). • parties also agree to accept safeguards by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to verify that they are not diverting nuclear energy from peaceful uses to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices (Article III).

6. Iraq was cited by the IAEA with punitive sanctions enacted against it by the UN Security Council for violating its NPT safeguards obligations; • North Korea never came into compliance with its NPT safeguards agreement and was cited repeatedly for these violations. and later withdrew from the NPT and tested multiple nuclear devices; • Iran was found in non-compliance with its NPT safeguards obligations in an unusual non-consensus decision because it "failed in a number of instances over an extended period of time" to report aspects of its enrichment program • Libya pursued a clandestine nuclear weapons program before abandoning it in December 2003.

7. India and Pakistan • India and Pakistan have publicly announced possession of nuclear weapons and have detonated nuclear devices in tests, India having first done so in 1974 and Pakistan following suit in 1998 • India and Pakistan have come to the brink of nuclear war several times, which would mark the first use of nuclear weapons since Hiroshima and Nagasaki • India is one of the few countries to have a no first use policy, a pledge not to use nuclear weapons unless first attacked by an adversary using nuclear weapons.

8. Israel • Officially Israel neither confirms nor denies possessing nuclear weapons. • it has been estimated that Israel possesses 75-400 nuclear weapons • The Israeli government maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity on whether it has nuclear weapons, saying only that it would not be the first to "introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East

9. Israel continued • The only suspected nuclear test conducted by Israel has become known as the Vela Incident • On 22 September 1979, a US Vela satellite, built in the 1960s to detect nuclear tests, reported a flash resembling a nuclear detonation in the southern Indian Ocean

10. Nuclear Facts • America- 8,500 weapons. 1st test- 1945. • USSR- 11,000 weapons. 1st test- 1949. • UK- 225 weapons. 1st test- 1952. • France- 300 weapons. 1st test 1960. • China- 240 weapons. 1st test- 1964. • India – 100 weapons. 1st test- 1974. • Pakistan- 110 weapons. 1st test 1998. • North Korea- <10 weapons. 1st test 2006. • Israel- 80 weapons. Test-possibly vela incident 1979.