Ethics and Nuclear Weapons Research

On the Ethics of Nuclear Weapons

Today’s international law regime leaves little room for lawful use of nuclear weapons.1 At the same time, there is no prohibition of these weapons per se.2 This situation distinguishes them from biological and chemical weapons, which are subject to comprehensive bans under the 1972 Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons Convention and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, respectively. The ‘legal ga...

Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Reactors

This report addresses the tenuous link between nuclear power reactor development and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, particularly with respect to possible terrorist exploitation. Arguments are presented that contradict the popular image of nuclear weaponry as a "basement project". 4 CONTENTS

Entangled histories: Climate science and nuclear weapons research

Climate science and nuclear weapons testing have a long and surprisingly intimate relationship. The global networks that monitored the Fukushima radiation plume and forecasted its movement are the direct descendants of systems and computer models developed to trace fallout from weapons tests. Tracing radioactive carbon as it cycles through the atmosphere, the oceans, and the biosphere has been ...

Effects of nuclear weapons

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August, 1945. The energy yields were equivalent to 12 500 tonnes and 20 000 tonnes of high explosive. Yields from thermonuclear weapons (H-bombs) range up to several megatons (Mt). Between 1945 and the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996, over 2000 nuclear tests were carried out by the USA, USSR, Britain, France and China, plus one by India. Mo...

The Effects of Nuclear Weapons