Definition of Nuclear Bomb

Einstein said that if a hypothetical Third World War was fought with nuclear weapons, the Fourth would be fought with stone axes.

This was a clear reference to the destructive power of this device, which was born at the end of the Second World War, and which still stands today as a threat over our heads, being able to destroy the known world.

A nuclear bomb is an explosive device that uses the power of particle reactions atomic and subatomic, to unleash a power equivalent to many more kilos of explosive material conventional.

Technically, and broadly speaking, it is a mass of a heavy element (uranium, plutonium) that is compressed to a point in which causes nuclear chain reactions that cause the formation of free electrons, accelerating these reactions in chain.

That is why the mass of uranium or plutonium is surrounded by a conventional explosive, which is the one that explodes first, compressing the mass of nuclear explosive to a point critical in which it begins to provoke the reaction that will make it explode.

The characteristics of an atomic bomb explosion are a huge area of ​​devastation compared to the size of the artifact, an intense heat capable of melting materials, and a radiation that causes the duration of the harmful effects of the explosion.

There are several types of nuclear bombs:

• The uranium, in which a uranium ball is added another quantity of uranium to bring about the critical mass.


• The plutonium, in which the ball of material is surrounded by a conventional explosive that compresses it until it reaches the critical mass.


• The thermonuclear or hydrogen, which is based on the fusion of hydrogen atoms, and not on the fission of atoms of elements heavy as in the two previous cases, although in reality these devices end up using techniques mixed.


• Neutron bomb. it also uses a mixed fusion / fission technique, but with a higher percentage of fusion even than the previous one. With these, a more destructive impact and a much shorter duration of radiation is achieved. It is more destructive for living beings and less for infrastructures such as buildings, since it generates radiation that affects living tissues, and is less polluting in the long term.

The race to obtain the atomic bomb began during World War II, and all the opponents were involved in it.

Thanks to the advances in theoretical physics that occurred between the beginning of the 20th century and the period of between the wars (and mainly in the 1920s), the theoretical bases of this device were well seated.

While we all know that the first - and so far only - country to use an atomic bomb on the ground against an enemy has been the United States, with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki launches, both this country, the USSR, Japan and Nazi Germany were among the first to seek their achievement.

Nazi Germany had physicists prepared to carry out their investigations, and even few historians claim (with little basis) that they even tested a nuclear bomb on an island in the Baltic.

However, Nazi scientists made a basic error that, fortunately for the world, deprived them of getting the weapon sooner. than the United States: dismissing Einstein's theories for the mere fact that he was a Jew (he had to go into exile from Germany to the USA).

In Japan, the research effort took another course, and the Japanese did not come close to obtaining the atomic artifact.

As for the USSR, they were always a step back from the USA until the postwar period, and much of their investigation Early was based on espionage to the tasks of the Americans thanks to philocommunist scientists.

On August 6, 1945, the bomb named Little Boy, the first nuclear device in history, exploded in Hiroshima.

His mission was to convince the Japanese leaders that unconditional surrender was their only way out, and that any resistance was futile.

The most optimistic estimates of the US military authorities raised up to one million (between soldiers of both sides and Japanese civilians) the casualties that would occur in an invasion of territory Japan, due to the calls to the extreme resistance of the imperial authorities, and to the fanaticism imbued even in the civil society.

The bomb, followed by the Nagasaki (Fat Man), gave the message that, if there were deaths, they would all be Japanese thanks to the great destructive power that the Americans had. But it took two explosions for the imperial authorities to realize that resistance was not a viable option.

They say that both attacks had another mission: to demonstrate to Stalin (the Cold War with the USSR already looming) the power of the Western allies to dissuade him from trying to conquer more territory in Europe at the cost of attacking the United States and its allies.

Subsequently, other nations have developed their own nuclear weapons, in a race that, despite attempts to curb it, continues today.

After the United States, the Soviet Union also developed its nuclear weapons. The third power to enter this select club was Great Britain, followed by France and China (the latter in 64).

These five countries (also with right veto in the Council of Safety of the UN) formed the exclusive nuclear club until 74, the year in which India conducted its own test of a nuclear device. Pakistan successfully tested its own weapon in 1998.

Israel and South Africa are also said to have the bomb, having carried out a joint or at least cooperative development program. South Africa has large uranium reserves, while Israel would have provided the technological know-how.

The latest and newest member of the atomic club is North Korea, which conducted a first test in 2006.

There has also been speculation about Ukraine, a country that was part of the former USSR, but more than be able to produce their atomic weapons, it is said that they could have or have had some inherited from the giant communist.

There has also been speculation with the possession, by countries and organizations terrorists, of small nuclear bombs, obtained by buying on the black market of military material stolen from the USSR in the time of decomposition of that country. Obviously, none of this has been proven.

Photos: Fotolia - vchalup / panitialapon

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