A TERM PAPER ON

NUCLEAR FISSION AND ITS IMPACT IN MASS DESTRUCTION

BY

MOMOH OSAZELE

MATRIC NO: 13/ENG06/024

SUBMITTED TO:

ENGR. DR. ADARAMOLA AND ENGR. ROMINIYI

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND MECHATRONICS ENGINEERING

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

AFE BABALOLA UNIVERSITY, ADO-EKITI, EKITI STATE,

NIGERIA.

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

AWARD OF THE BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING DEGREE (B.ENG)

IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING.

NOVEMBER, 2017
 INTRODUCTION

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions,
either fission (fission bomb) or from a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear
bomb). Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter.
The first test of a fission ("atomic") bomb released an amount of energy approximately equal to
20,000 tons of TNT (84 TJ). The first thermonuclear ("hydrogen") bomb test released energy
approximately equal to 10 million tons of TNT (42 PJ). A thermonuclear weapon weighing little
more than 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg) can release energy equal to more than 1.2 million tons of TNT
(5.0 PJ) (Cohen, 1983). A nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate an entire
city by blast, fire, and radiation. Since they are weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation of
nuclear weapons is a focus of international relations policy.

Nuclear weapons have been used twice in war, both times by the United States against Japan near
the end of World War II. On August 6, 1945, the U.S. Army Air Forces detonated a uranium gun-
type fission bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" over the Japanese city of Hiroshima; three days later,
on August 9, the U.S. Army Air Forces detonated a plutonium implosion-type fission bomb
nicknamed "Fat Man" over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. These bombings resulted in the deaths
of approximately 200,000 civilians and military personnel from injuries sustained from the
explosions. The ethics of these bombings and their role in Japan's surrender are subjects of debate
(K=1 Project, 2017).

Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated over
two thousand times for testing and demonstration. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are
suspected of seeking them. The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons—and
acknowledge possessing them—are the United States, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear
power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is
believed to possess nuclear weapons, though, in a policy of deliberate ambiguity, it does not
acknowledge having them. Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands are nuclear
weapons sharing states. South Africa is the only country to have independently developed and then
renounced and dismantled its nuclear weapons (Coster-Mullen, 2001).
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons aims to reduce the spread of nuclear
weapons, but its effectiveness has been questioned, and political tensions remained high in the
1970s and 1980s. Modernization of weapons continues to this day.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS DESIGN

Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the
physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types. In
many existing designs, the explosive energy of deployed devices is derived primarily from nuclear
fission, not fusion (Rhodes, 1986). (This includes fission of any U-238 tamper or casing due to
fusion produced neutrons.)

i. Pure fission weapons were the first nuclear weapons built and have so far been the only type
ever used in warfare. The active material is weapons grade uranium (uranium with a high
percentage of U-235) or plutonium (Pu-239), explosively assembled into a chain-reacting critical
mass by one of two methods:

a. Gun assembly: one piece of fissile uranium is fired at a fissile uranium target at the end of
the weapon, similar to firing a bullet down a gun barrel, achieving critical mass when combined.

b. Implosion: a fissile mass of either material (U-235, Pu-239, or a combination) is

surrounded by high explosives that compress the mass, resulting in criticality.

The implosion method can use either uranium or plutonium as fuel. The gun method only
uses uranium. Plutonium is considered impractical for the gun method because of early
triggering due to Pu-240 contamination and due to its time constant for prompt critical
fission being much shorter than that of U-235.

ii. Boosted fission weapons improve on the implosion design. The high pressure and temperature
environment at the center of an exploding fission weapon compresses and heats a mixture of
tritium and deuterium gas (heavy isotopes of hydrogen). The hydrogen fuses to form helium and
free neutrons. The energy release from this fusion reaction is relatively negligible, but each neutron
starts a new fission chain reaction, speeding up the fission and greatly reducing the amount of
fissile material that would otherwise be wasted when expansion of the fissile material stops the
chain reaction. Boosting can more than double the weapon's fission energy release.

iii. Staged thermonuclear weapons: These are essentially a chain of fusion-boosted fission
weapons, usually with only two stages in the chain. The secondary stage is imploded by x-ray
energy from the first stage, called the "primary." This radiation implosion is much more effective
than the high-explosive implosion of the primary. Consequently, the secondary can be many times
more powerful than the primary, without being bigger. The secondary can be designed to maximize
fusion energy release, but in most designs, fusion is employed only to drive or enhance fission, as
it is in the primary. More stages could be added and conceptual designs incorporating up to seven
have been produced, but the result would be a multi-megaton weapon too powerful to serve any
plausible purpose. (Rhodes, 1986). (The United States briefly deployed a three-stage 25-megaton
bomb, the B41, starting in 1961. Also in 1961, the Soviet Union tested, but did not deploy, a three-
stage 50–100 megaton device, Tsar Bomba.)

Pure Fission Design

The first task of a nuclear weapon design is to rapidly assemble a supercritical mass of fissile
uranium or plutonium. A supercritical mass is one in which the percentage of fission-produced
neutrons captured by another fissile nucleus is large enough that each fission event, on average,
causes more than one additional fission event.

Once the critical mass is assembled, at maximum density, a burst of neutrons is supplied to start
as many chain reactions as possible. Early weapons used an "urchin" inside the pit containing
polonium-210 and beryllium separated by a thin barrier. Implosion of the pit crushed the urchin,
mixing the two metals, thereby allowing alpha particles from the polonium to interact with
beryllium to produce free neutrons. In modern weapons, the neutron generator is a high-voltage
vacuum tube containing a particle accelerator which bombards a deuterium/tritium-metal hydride
target with deuterium and tritium ions. The resulting small-scale fusion produces neutrons at a
protected location outside the physics package, from which they penetrate the pit. This method
allows better control of the timing of chain reaction initiation.
The critical mass of an uncompressed sphere of bare metal is 50 kg (110 lb) for uranium-235 and
16 kg (35 lb) for delta-phase plutonium-239. In practical applications, the amount of material
required for criticality is modified by shape, purity, density, and the proximity to neutron-
reflecting material, all of which affect the escape or capture of neutrons.

To avoid a chain reaction during handling, the fissile material in the weapon must be sub-critical
before detonation. It may consist of one or more components containing less than one
uncompressed critical mass each. A thin hollow shell can have more than the bare-sphere critical
mass, as can a cylinder, which can be arbitrarily long without ever reaching criticality.

A “tamper” is an optional layer of dense material surrounding the fissile material. Due to its
inertia it delays the expansion of the reacting material, increasing the efficiency of the weapon.
Often the same layer serves both as tamper and as neutron reflector.

Gun-type Assembly

Little Boy, the Hiroshima bomb, used 64 kg (141 lb) of uranium with an average enrichment of
around 80%, or 51 kg (112 lb) of U-235, just about the bare-metal critical mass. When assembled
inside its tamper/reflector of tungsten carbide, the 64 kg (141 lb) was more than twice critical
mass. Before the detonation, the uranium-235 was formed into two sub-critical pieces, one of
which was later fired down a gun barrel to join the other, starting the nuclear explosion. About 1%
of the uranium underwent fission (Rutherford, 1911). The remainder, representing most of the
entire wartime output of the giant factories at Oak Ridge, scattered uselessly. (Rhodes, 1986)

The inefficiency was caused by the speed with which the uncompressed fissioning uranium
expanded and became sub-critical by virtue of decreased density. Despite its inefficiency, this
design, because of its shape, was adapted for use in small-diameter, cylindrical artillery shells (a
gun-type warhead fired from the barrel of a much larger gun). Such warheads were deployed by
the United States until 1992, accounting for a significant fraction of the U-235 in the arsenal, and
were some of the first weapons dismantled to comply with treaties limiting warhead numbers. The
rationale for this decision was undoubtedly a combination of the lower yield and grave safety
issues associated with the gun-type design.
Implosion-type

For both the Trinity device and the Fat Man – the Nagasaki bomb, nearly identical plutonium
fission through implosion designs were used. The Fat Man device specifically used 6.2 kg (14 lb),
about 350 ml or 12 US fl oz in volume, of Pu-239, which is only 41% of bare-sphere critical mass.
Surrounded by a U-238 reflector/tamper, the Fat Man's pit was brought close to critical mass by
the neutron-reflecting properties of the U-238. During detonation, criticality was achieved by
implosion. The plutonium pit was squeezed to increase its density by simultaneous detonation, as
with the "Trinity" test detonation three weeks earlier, of the conventional explosives placed
uniformly around the pit. The explosives were detonated by multiple exploding-bridgewire
detonators. It is estimated that only about 20% of the plutonium underwent fission; the rest, about
5 kg (11 lb), was scattered.

An implosion shock wave might be of such short duration that only part of the pit is compressed
at any instant as the wave passes through it. To prevent this, a pusher shell may be needed. The
pusher is located between the explosive lens and the tamper. It works by reflecting some of the
shock wave backwards, thereby having the effect of lengthening its duration. It is made out of a
low density metal—such as aluminium, beryllium, or an alloy of the two metals (aluminium is
easier and safer to shape, and is two orders of magnitude cheaper; beryllium has high-neutron-
reflective capability). Fat Man used an aluminium pusher.

The series of RaLa Experiment tests of implosion-type fission weapon design concepts, carried
out from July 1944 through February 1945 at the Los Alamos Laboratory and a remote site 14.3 km
(9 miles) east of it in Bayo Canyon, proved the practicality of the implosion design for a fission
device, with the February 1945 tests positively determining its usability for the final Trinity/Fat
Man plutonium implosion design. (Grace, 2005).

The key to Fat Man's greater efficiency was the inward momentum of the massive U-238 tamper.
(The natural uranium tamper did not undergo fission from thermal neutrons, but did contribute
perhaps 20% of the total yield from fission by fast neutrons). Once the chain reaction started in the
plutonium, the momentum of the implosion had to be reversed before expansion could stop the
fission. By holding everything together for a few hundred nanoseconds more, the efficiency was
increased.

Fusion-boosted fission design

The next step in miniaturization was to speed up the fissioning of the pit to reduce the minimum
inertial confinement time. This would allow the efficient fission of the fuel with less mass in the
form of tamper or the fuel itself. The key to achieving faster fission would be to introduce more
neutrons, and among the many ways to do this, adding a fusion reaction was relatively easy in the
case of a hollow pit. (Arora, Singh, 1994).

The easiest fusion reaction to achieve is found in a 50–50 mixture of tritium and deuterium. For
fusion power experiments this mixture must be held at high temperatures for relatively lengthy
times in order to have an efficient reaction. For explosive use, however, the goal is not to produce
efficient fusion, but simply provide extra neutrons early in the process. Since a nuclear explosion
is supercritical, any extra neutrons will be multiplied by the chain reaction, so even tiny quantities
introduced early can have a large effect on the final outcome. For this reason, even the relatively
low compression pressures and times (in fusion terms) found in the center of a hollow pit warhead
are enough to create the desired effect.

In the boosted design, the fusion fuel in gas form is pumped into the pit during arming. This will
fuse into helium and release free neutrons soon after fission begins. The neutrons will start a large
number of new chain reactions while the pit is still critical or nearly critical. Once the hollow pit
is perfected, there is little reason not to boost; deuterium and tritium is easily produced in the small
quantities needed, and the technical aspects are trivial.

The concept of fusion-boosted fission was first tested on May 25, 1951, in the Item shot of
Operation Greenhouse, Eniwetok, and yielded 45.5 kilotons.

Boosting reduces diameter in three ways, all the result of faster fission:
 i. Since the compressed pit does not need to be held together as long, the massive U-238
tamper can be replaced by a light-weight beryllium shell (to reflect escaping neutrons back
into the pit). The diameter is reduced.

ii. The mass of the pit can be reduced by half, without reducing yield. Diameter is reduced
again.

iii. Since the mass of the metal being imploded (tamper plus pit) is reduced, a smaller
charge of high explosive is needed, reducing diameter even further.

Since boosting is required to attain full design yield, any reduction in boosting reduces yield.
Boosted weapons are thus variable-yield weapons (also known as dial-a-yield); yield can be
reduced any time before detonation simply by reducing the amount of tritium inserted into the pit
during the arming procedure. (Schneider, 1975).

Figure 1.1: U.S Swan Device (Source: Byrne, J. (2011). Neutrons, Nuclei, and Matter)

The first device whose dimensions suggest employment of all these features (two-point, hollow-
pit, fusion-boosted implosion) was the Swan device. It had a cylindrical shape with a diameter of
11.6 in (29 cm) and a length of 22.8 in (58 cm).

It was first tested standalone and then as the primary of a two-stage thermonuclear device during
Operation Redwing. It was weaponized as the Robin primary and became the first off-the-shelf,
multi-use primary, and the prototype for all that followed (Brünglinghaus, 2017).
After the success of Swan, 11 or 12 inches (300 mm) seemed to become the standard diameter of
boosted single-stage devices tested during the 1950s. Length was usually twice the diameter, but
one such device, which became the W54 warhead, was closer to a sphere, only 15 inches (380 mm)
long. It was tested two dozen times in the 1957–62 period before being deployed. No other design
had such a long string of test failures.

One of the applications of the W54 was the Davy Crockett XM-388 recoilless rifle projectile. It
had a dimension of just 11 inches, and is shown here in comparison to its Fat Man predecessor.
(Kuroda, 1956).

Another benefit of boosting, in addition to making weapons smaller, lighter, and with less fissile
material for a given yield, is that it renders weapons immune to radiation interference (RI). It was
discovered in the mid-1950s that plutonium pits would be particularly susceptible to partial pre-
detonation if exposed to the intense radiation of a nearby nuclear explosion (electronics might also
be damaged, but this was a separate problem). RI was a particular problem before effective early
warning radar systems because a first strike attack might make retaliatory weapons useless.
Boosting reduces the amount of plutonium needed in a weapon to below the quantity which would
be vulnerable to this effect. (Kuroda, 1956).

NUCLEAR FISSION

In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is either a nuclear reaction or a
radioactive decay process in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts (lighter nuclei).
The fission process often produces free neutrons and gamma photons, and releases a very large
amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactive decay (Falk, 1982).

Nuclear fission of heavy elements was discovered on December 17, 1938 by German Otto Hahn
and his assistant Fritz Strassmann, and explained theoretically in January 1939 by Lise Meitner
and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch. Frisch named the process by analogy with biological fission
of living cells. (Grace, 2005). It is an exothermic reaction which can release large amounts of
energy both as electromagnetic radiation and as kinetic energy of the fragments (heating the bulk
material where fission takes place). In order for fission to produce energy, the total binding energy
of the resulting elements must be less negative (higher energy) than that of the starting element.

Fission is a form of nuclear transmutation because the resulting fragments are not the same element
as the original atom. The two nuclei produced are most often of comparable but slightly different
sizes, typically with a mass ratio of products of about 3 to 2, for common fissile isotopes.
(Rutherford, 1911). Most fissions are binary fissions (producing two charged fragments), but
occasionally (2 to 4 times per 1000 events), three positively charged fragments are produced, in a
ternary fission. The smallest of these fragments in ternary processes ranges in size from a proton
to an argon nucleus.

Apart from fission induced by a neutron, harnessed and exploited by humans, a natural form of
spontaneous radioactive decay (not requiring a neutron) is also referred to as fission, and occurs
especially in very high-mass-number isotopes. Spontaneous fission was discovered in 1940 by
Flyorov, Petrzhak and Kurchatov (Rudig, 1990) in Moscow, when they decided to confirm that,
without bombardment by neutrons, the fission rate of uranium was indeed negligible, as predicted
by Niels Bohr; it was not. (Bethe, 1950)

The unpredictable composition of the products (which vary in a broad probabilistic and somewhat
chaotic manner) distinguishes fission from purely quantum-tunneling processes such as proton
emission, alpha decay, and cluster decay, which give the same products each time. Nuclear fission
produces energy for nuclear power and drives the explosion of nuclear weapons. Both uses are
possible because certain substances called nuclear fuels undergo fission when struck by fission
neutrons, and in turn emit neutrons when they break apart. This makes possible a self-sustaining
nuclear chain reaction that releases energy at a controlled rate in a nuclear reactor or at a very rapid
uncontrolled rate in a nuclear weapon. (Smyth, 1945).

The amount of free energy contained in nuclear fuel is millions of times the amount of free energy
contained in a similar mass of chemical fuel such as gasoline, making nuclear fission a very dense
source of energy. The products of nuclear fission, however, are on average far more radioactive
than the heavy elements which are normally fissioned as fuel, and remain so for significant
amounts of time, giving rise to a nuclear waste problem. Concerns over nuclear waste
accumulation and over the destructive potential of nuclear weapons are a counterbalance to the
peaceful desire to use fission as an energy source, and give rise to ongoing political debate over
nuclear power.

All existing nuclear weapons derive some of their explosive energy from nuclear fission reactions.
Weapons whose explosive output is exclusively from fission reactions are commonly referred to
as atomic bombs or atom bombs (abbreviated as A-bombs). This has long been noted as something
of a misnomer, as their energy comes from the nucleus of the atom, just as it does with fusion
weapons.

In fission weapons, a mass of fissile material (enriched uranium or plutonium) is forced into
supercriticality—allowing an exponential growth of nuclear chain reactions—either by shooting
one piece of sub-critical material into another (the "gun" method) or by compressing using
explosive lenses a sub-critical sphere of material using chemical explosives to many times its
original density (the "implosion" method). The latter approach is considered more sophisticated
than the former, and only the latter approach can be used if the fissile material is plutonium.
(Schneider, 1975).

A major challenge in all nuclear weapon designs is to ensure that a significant fraction of the fuel
is consumed before the weapon destroys itself. The amount of energy released by fission bombs
can range from the equivalent of just under a ton to upwards of 500,000 tons (500 kilotons) of
TNT (4.2 to 2.1×108 GJ). (Cohen, 1983).

All fission reactions generate fission products, the remains of the split atomic nuclei. Many fission
products are either highly radioactive (but short-lived) or moderately radioactive (but long-lived),
and as such, they are a serious form of radioactive contamination if not fully contained. Fission
products are the principal radioactive component of nuclear fallout.

The most commonly used fissile materials for nuclear weapons applications have been uranium-
235 and plutonium-239. Less commonly used has been uranium-233. Neptunium-237 and some
isotopes of americium may be usable for nuclear explosives as well, but it is not clear that this has
ever been implemented, and their plausible use in nuclear weapons is a matter of dispute
The discoveries that one of the uranium isotopes 235U underwent nuclear fission reactions, and that
neutrons were released opened a new frontier for research and development. The discoveries were
so important that they were treated as top secret because of its potential applications in war.
Furthermore, these discoveries were made at a time when the entire world was at war, and the war
sped up the research and development. (Grace, 2005).

Fission process and the energy aspect is concentrated on in this section. A spontaneous reaction
releases energy. Neutron induced nuclear fission reactions are spontaneous reactions and they release
energy. This quantity is important, because it affects fission research and development. Both
theoretical considerations and practical measurements have been carried out to give estimates of the
amount of energy released in fission reactions. Some examples showing how estimates can be made
are given here.

When nucleons bind together to form a nuclide, energy is released. The energy so released is called
binding energy. The average binding energy is the largest for nuclides with mass number around 56.
Thus, splitting up a heavy nuclide such as uranium to give nuclides with mass number about 117
releases energy. A rough estimate is to consider an even split of 235U92 to give two nuclides of mass
numbers 117 and 118. A search of stable nuclides with mass numbers 117 and 118 are 117Sn50, and
118
Sn50, their masses being 116.902956 and 117.901609 amu respectively. The mass of 235
U92 is
235.043924 amu. The difference in mass

235.043924 - (116.902956 + 117.901609)

= 0.2394 amu (931.5 MeV/1 amu)
= 223 MeV. [ 1amu = 931MeV ]

E = m c2

Where:

E = Energy obtained/given out [J]

m = Mass of body [kg]

c = Speed of light (in a vacuum) [m/s]

In reality, a fission reaction usually gives two unequal fragments, plus 2 to 3 neutrons. These neutron-
rich fragments are beta () emitters. As a more realistic example to calculate the energy of a fission
reaction, let the two fragments be isotopes of rubidium and cesium plus three neutrons. The reaction
can be represented by

U92 + n 
235 142
Cs55 + 90Rb35 + 4n + Q.

where Q is the mass equivalence of energy released. The neutron-rich cesium and rubidium isotopes
are not stable, and they undergo radioactive decays (Rhodes, 1986):

Cs55  142Ba56 +  (~1 min)

142 90
Rb35  90Sr38 +  (half-life, 15.4 mins)

Ba56  142La57 +  (11 mins)

142 90
Sr38 90Y39+  (27.7 yrs)

La57  142Ce58 +  (58 mins)

142 90
Y39  90Zr40 (stable) +  (64 hrs)

Ce58  142Pr59 +  (51015 yrs)

142

Pr59  142Nd (stable) +  (19 hrs)

142

The total energy can be calculated from the measured masses of 235U, 90Zr, 142Nd, and neutron but
some of the energy will not be released during the operation of the reactor due to the very long half-
lives (in this case of 90Sr38, 142Ce58). However, a calculation to estimate the energy may proceed in
the following way (Bethe, 1950):

Reaction 235
U92  90Rb37 + 142Cs55 + 3n + Q.
Mass /amu 235.04924 = 89.904703 + 141.907719 + 3 x 1.008665 + Q

Q = (235.043924 - 89.904703 - 141.907719 - 3 x 1.008665)(931.4812 MeV/1 amu)

= 191.4 MeV per fission

The energy of 191.4 MeV is equivalent to 0.0000307 J or 307 erg, which is released per fission of
235
U92 nucleus. Fission of one kilogram (1000 g) of uranium-235 will release 7.861019 J

1mol U 6.023  1023 U nuclei 191.4MeV 1.602  1019 J

1000g U    
235g U 1mol U 1U nucleus 1MeV
 = 7.861013 J [ 1MeV = 1.602× 10−19 J ]

This amount of energy is equivalent to 2.2×1010 kilowatt-hour, 22000 megawatt-hour, or

22 giga-watt-hour. This amount of energy keeps a 100-watt light bulb lit for 25,000 years. (Falk,
1982).

In the fission process, the fragments and neutrons move away at high speed carrying with them large
amounts of kinetic energy. The neutrons released during the fission process are called fast neutrons
because of their high speed. Neutrons and fission fragments fly apart instantaneously in a fission
process. No delayed liberation of neutrons was ever observed. Gamma rays (photons) equivalent to
8 MeV of energy are released within a microsecond of fission (Rutherford, 1911). As mentioned
earlier, the two fragments are beta emitters. Recall that beta decays are accompanied by antineutrino
emissions, and the two types of particles carry away approximately equal amounts of energy. Beta
decays often leave the nuclei at excited states, and gamma emission follows. Estimated average
values of various energies are given in a table here (Arora, Singh, 1994):

Energy (MeV) distribution in fission reactions

Kinetic energy of fission fragments 167

MeV

Prompt (< 10–6 s) gamma () ray energy 8

Kinetic energy of fission neutrons 8

Gamma () ray energy from fission products 7

Beta () decay energy of fission products 7

Energy as antineutrinos (ve) 7

Table 1.1: Energy (MeV) distribution in fission reactions (Source: Neutrons, Nuclei, and
Matter)
Because they are weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation and possible use of nuclear
weapons are important issues in international relations and diplomacy. In most countries, the use
of nuclear force can only be authorized by the head of government or head of state. Despite controls
and regulations governing nuclear weapons, there is an inherent danger of “accidents, mistakes,
false alarms, blackmail, theft, and sabotage”.

In the late 1940s, lack of mutual trust prevented the United States and the Soviet Union from
making progress on arms control agreements. The Russell–Einstein Manifesto was issued in
London on July 9, 1955, by Bertrand Russell in the midst of the Cold War. It highlighted the
dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to
international conflict. The signatories included eleven pre-eminent intellectuals and scientists,
including Albert Einstein, who signed it just days before his death on April 18, 1955. A few days
after the release, philanthropist Cyrus S. Eaton offered to sponsor a conference—called for in the
manifesto—in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Eaton's birthplace. This conference was to be the first of the
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, held in July 1957.

By the 1960s steps were taken to limit both the proliferation of nuclear weapons to other countries
and the environmental effects of nuclear testing. The Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963)
restricted all nuclear testing to underground nuclear testing, to prevent contamination from nuclear
fallout, whereas the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968) attempted to place
restrictions on the types of activities signatories could participate in, with the goal of allowing the
transference of non-military nuclear technology to member countries without fear of proliferation.

In 1957, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was established under the mandate of
the United Nations to encourage development of peaceful applications of nuclear technology,
provide international safeguards against its misuse, and facilitate the application of safety measures
in its use. In 1996, many nations signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty,[37] which
prohibits all testing of nuclear weapons. A testing ban imposes a significant hindrance to nuclear
arms development by any complying country. The Treaty requires the ratification by 44 specific
states before it can go into force; as of 2012, the ratification of eight of these states is still required.
Additional treaties and agreements have governed nuclear weapons stockpiles between the
countries with the two largest stockpiles, the United States and the Soviet Union, and later between
the United States and Russia. These include treaties such as SALT II (never ratified), START I
(expired), INF, START II (never ratified), SORT, and New START, as well as non-binding
agreements such as SALT I and the Presidential Nuclear Initiatives of 1991. Even when they did
not enter into force, these agreements helped limit and later reduce the numbers and types of
nuclear weapons between the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia.

Nuclear weapons have also been opposed by agreements between countries. Many nations have
been declared Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones, areas where nuclear weapons production and
deployment are prohibited, through the use of treaties. The Treaty of Tlatelolco (1967) prohibited
any production or deployment of nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the
Treaty of Pelindaba (1964) prohibits nuclear weapons in many African countries. As recently as
2006 a Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone was established amongst the former Soviet
republics of Central Asia prohibiting nuclear weapons.

In 1996, the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations, issued an
Advisory Opinion concerned with the "Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons". The
court ruled that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons would violate various articles of
international law, including the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions, the UN Charter,
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Given the unique, destructive characteristics of
nuclear weapons, the International Committee of the Red Cross calls on States to ensure that these
weapons are never used, irrespective of whether they consider them lawful or not.

Additionally, there have been other, specific actions meant to discourage countries from
developing nuclear arms. In the wake of the tests by India and Pakistan in 1998, economic
sanctions were (temporarily) levied against both countries, though neither were signatories with
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. One of the stated casus belli for the initiation of the 2003
Iraq War was an accusation by the United States that Iraq was actively pursuing nuclear arms
(though this was soon discovered not to be the case as the program had been discontinued). In
1981, Israel had bombed a nuclear reactor being constructed in Osirak, Iraq, in what it called an
attempt to halt Iraq's previous nuclear arms ambitions; in 2007, Israel bombed another reactor
being constructed in Syria.

In 2013, Mark Diesendorf said that governments of France, India, North Korea, Pakistan, UK, and
South Africa have used nuclear power and/or research reactors to assist nuclear weapons
development or to contribute to their supplies of nuclear explosives from military reactors. (Rudig,
1990).

EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR FISSION WEAPONS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Nuclear weapons have been used twice, on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
August 1945. Evidence from these occasions, as well as atmospheric nuclear testing and nuclear
power accidents have formed the basis of our knowledge of the effects of nuclear weapons. Modern
nuclear weapons generally have much greater explosive power than those first two bombs, and
would greatly increase the scale of the devastation. (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 2017).

Long Term

The effects can be divided into four categories: instantaneous, near-immediate, short term and long
term.

Instantaneous

The heart of a nuclear explosion reaches a temperature of several million degrees centigrade. Over
a wide area the resulting heat flash literally vapourises all human tissue. At Hiroshima, within a
radius of half a mile, the only remains of most of the people caught in the open were their shadows
burnt into stone.

Near-immediate

People inside buildings or otherwise shielded will be indirectly killed by the blast and heat effects
as buildings collapse and all inflammable materials burst into flames. The immediate death rate
will be over 90%. Various individual fires will combine to produce a fire storm as all the oxygen
is consumed. As the heat rises, air is drawn in from the periphery at or near ground level. This
results in lethal, hurricane force winds as well as perpetuating the fire as the fresh oxygen is burnt.
Such fire storms have also been produced by intense, large scale conventional bombing in cities
such as Hamburg and Tokyo.

People in underground shelters who survive the initial heat flash will die as all the oxygen is sucked
out of the atmosphere.

Outside the area of total destruction there will be a gradually increasing percentage of immediate
survivors. However most of these will suffer from fatal burns, will be blinded, bleeding from
glass splinters and will have suffered massive internal injuries. Many will be trapped in collapsed
and burning buildings. The death rate will be higher than in a normal disaster since most
emergency services will be incapable of responding due to their equipment being destroyed and
staff killed. The sheer scale of the casualties would overwhelm any country's medical resources.
The International Red Cross has concluded that the use of a single nuclear weapon in or near a
populated area is likely to result in a humanitarian disaster that will be "difficult to address".
There is currently no international plan in place to deliver humanitarian assistance to survivors in
the case of a nuclear attack. Most casualties would receive at best minimal, palliative treatment.
The best they could hope for would be to die in as little pain as possible. (Office of Technology
Assessment, 2017).

Short Term

Survivors will be affected within a matter of days by radioactive fall-out. The extent of the fall-
out will vary according to whether the nuclear bomb detonates in the air (as at Hiroshima) or upon
impact on the ground. While the former will entail more blast impact, the latter will throw up much
larger quantities of radioactive debris into the atmosphere.

The area covered by the fall-out is determined by wind speed and direction. The heavier particles
of radioactive material will fall in the immediate or close vicinity. Finer particles will be blown
over longer distances before they descend. Very fine particles may be blown even further before
they combine with water vapour and fall as radioactive rain. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl
nuclear power explosion and fire in the Ukraine in 1986, radioactive rain fell over the next few
days in a wide arc across Northern Europe, from Scandinavia to Scotland, Cumbria and Wales, a
distance of over 1,700 miles from Chernobyl. (Rudig, 1990).

The effects of exposure to high levels of radioactive fall-out include hair loss, bleeding from the
mouth and gums, internal bleeding and haemorrhagic diarrhoea, gangrenous ulcers, vomiting,
fever, delirium and terminal coma. There is no effective treatment and death follows in a matter of
days.

At lower levels of exposure, while there is an increased chance of at least short term survival, the
death rate remains high. Those who do survive face many complications. Pregnant women are
likely to miscarry or give birth to babies with a range of disabilities. Healing from injuries is often
slow, leaving distinctive scar tissue. Damage to the immune system is probable. (Lemon, 2017).

Long Term

Radiation-induced cancers will affect many, often over twenty years later. Certain cancers such as
thyroid cancer in children are particularly associated with exposure to radiation. The children of
those exposed to radiation are statistically more likely to be born with abnormalities and suffer
from leukaemia. Because of the long period between exposure and the onset of cancer, it is difficult
to attribute a particular cancer to a particular cause. The correlation is described as
epidemiological, rather as the connection between smoking and lung cancer was statistically
established before the medical links had been uncovered. (K=1 Project, 2017).

Accurate estimates of long term fatalities at Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not possible given the
large scale destruction of records, population movements and a general censorship on nuclear
effects by the US occupation regime. However the generally used estimates of casualties are
140,000 in Hiroshima and 75,000 in Nagasaki. (Office of Technology Assessment, 2017).

Nuclear weapons cause severe damage to the climate and environment on a scale incomparable to
any other weapon. Research by the International Red Cross shows the effect of a ‘limited’ nuclear
war involving 100 Hiroshima-sized bombs (i.e. less than half a per cent of the world's stockpile).
The five million tonnes of soot produced by the ensuing fires would cause global temperature to
fall by an average of 1.3C. The disrupted global climate would have an overwhelming impact on
food production. The Red Cross estimates that a billion people around the world could face
starvation as a result of nuclear war. (Lemon, 2017).

NUCLEAR PLANTS INCORPORATION OF NUCLEAR FISSION

A nuclear power plant is a facility that converts atomic energy into usable power. In a nuclear
electric power plant, heat produced by a reactor is generally used to drive a turbine which in turn
drives an electric generator. (Glossary of Environment Statistics, 1997)

Principle of a Nuclear Power Plant

The basic principle of the performance of a nuclear power plant is based on obtaining heat
energy through the nuclear fission of the atoms´ nucleus from the fuel. This heat energy, already
being steam, will be converted into mechanical energy by a turbine, and in the end this
mechanical energy will be converted into electrical energy by a generator. The nuclear reactor is
responsible for rising and handling this atomic fission that generates a lot of heat. With this heat
the reactor converts water to steam at a high temperature and pressure.

Generation of Electricity

The steam exits the containment building due to the high pressure that it is subjected to, until it
reaches the turbine and the steam makes the turbine rotate. At this moment, part of the heat
energy of the steam is being transformed into kinetic energy. This turbine is connected to an
electric generator whereby the kinetic energy is transformed into electric energy. On the other
hand, the water vapour that has gone out of the turbine, although it has lost calorific energy, it
continues being in gas state and very warm. To re-use water contained in the mentioned water
steam, it is necessary to refrigerate it before introducing the water back to the circuit. Once out of
the turbine, the steam goes to a condensation chamber where it cools down by being in contact
with pipelines of cold water. The water steam becomes liquid and using a pump, water is sent
back again to the nuclear reactor so that the cycle can start again.That is why nuclear plants are
always installed near of an abundant supply of cold water (sea, river, lake) to take this water to
the condensation chamber.

Safety of Nuclear Power Reactors

From the outset, there has been a strong awareness of the potential hazard of both nuclear
criticality and release of radioactive materials from generating electricity with nuclear power. As
in other industries, the design and operation of nuclear power plants aims to minimise the
likelihood of accidents, and avoid major human consequences when they occur. There have been
three major reactor accidents in the history of civil nuclear power – Three Mile Island,
Chernobyl and Fukushima. One was contained without harm to anyone, the next involved an
intense fire without provision for containment, and the third severely tested the containment,
allowing some release of radioactivity. These are the only major accidents to have occurred in
over 17,000 cumulative reactor-years of commercial nuclear power operation in 33
countries. The evidence over six decades shows that nuclear power is a safe means of generating
electricity. The risk of accidents in nuclear power plants is low and declining. The consequences
of an accident or terrorist attack are minimal compared with other commonly accepted risks.
Radiological effects on people of any radioactive releases can be avoided.
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