Flashcards: Nuclear weapons

The energy released from a nuclear weapon detonated in the troposphere can be divided into four basic categories: * Blast—40–50% of total energy * Thermal radiation—30–50% of total energy * Ionizing radiation—5% of total energy (more in a neutron bomb) * Residual radiation—5–10% of total energy with the mass of the explosion When an air burst occurs, lethal blast and thermal effects proportionally scale much more rapidly than lethal radiation effects, as higher and higher yield nuclear weapons are used.

A cobalt bomb is a theoretical type of "salted bomb": a nuclear weapon designed to produce enhanced amounts of radioactive fallout, intended to contaminate a large area with radioactive material.

RDS-3 was the third atomic bomb developed by the Soviet Union in 1951, after the famous RDS-1 and RDS-2.

Nuclear fallout, or simply fallout, is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast or a nuclear reaction conducted in an unshielded facility, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave have passed.

Nuclear safety is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "The achievement of proper operating conditions, prevention of accidents or mitigation of accident consequences, resulting in protection of workers, the public and the environment from undue radiation hazards".

The RDS-1 (Russian: РДС-1), also known as Izdeliye 501 (device 501) and First Lightning (Первая молния, Pervaya molniya), was used in the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test.

Nuclear weapons possess enormous destructive power from nuclear fission or combined fission and fusion reactions.

"Fat Man" was the codename for the type of atomic bomb that was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki by the United States on 9 August 1945.

Mutual assured destruction or mutually assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender (see pre-emptive nuclear strike and second strike).

A neutron bomb, officially termed as a type of Enhanced Radiation Weapon (ERW), is a low yield thermonuclear weapon in which a burst of neutrons generated by a nuclear fusion reaction is intentionally allowed to escape the weapon, rather than being absorbed by its other components.

Nuclear winter (also known as atomic winter) is a hypothesized global climatic effect most often considered a potential threat following a countervalue (or city-targeted), nuclear war, as a result of city and natural wildfire firestorms.

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion (thermonuclear weapon).

A thermonuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon that uses the energy from a primary nuclear fission reaction to compress and ignite a secondary nuclear fusion reaction.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.

A nuclear-weapons-free zone (NWFZ) is defined by the United Nations as an agreement which a group of states has freely established by treaty or convention, that bans the use, development, or deployment of nuclear weapons in a given area, that has mechanisms of verification and control to enforce its obligations, and that is recognized as such by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also sometimes called a transient electromagnetic disturbance, is a short burst of electromagnetic energy.

Project Iceworm was the code name for a top-secret United States Army program during the Cold War to build a network of mobile nuclear missile launch sites under the Greenland ice sheet.

The nuclear weapons tests of the Soviet Union were performed between 1949 and 1990 as part of the nuclear arms race.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a multilateral treaty that bans all nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments.

The Japanese program to develop nuclear weapons was conducted during World War II.

There are eight sovereign states that have successfully detonated nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability of nuclear weapons.

Operation Hurricane was the test of the first UK atomic device on 3 October 1952.

The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Strategic Offensive Reductions (SORT), also known as the Treaty of Moscow, was a strategic arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia that was in force from June 2003 until February 2011 when it was superseded by the New START treaty.

The Treaty of Tlatelolco is the conventional name given to the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-weapons-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated.

A salted bomb is a nuclear weapon designed to function as a radiological weapon, producing enhanced quantities of radioactive fallout, rendering a large area uninhabitable.

The nuclear weapons tests of the United States were performed between 1945 and 1992 as part of the nuclear arms race.

Nuclear espionage is the purposeful giving of state secrets regarding nuclear weapons to other states without authorization (espionage).

Nuclear weapon designs are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate.

Nuclear latency is the condition of a country possessing the technology to quickly build nuclear weapons, without having actually yet done so.

The uranium hydride bomb was a variant design of the atomic bomb, that was first suggested by Robert Oppenheimer in 1939 and advocated and tested by Edward Teller.

Strategic nuclear weapons are used primarily as part of a doctrine of deterrence by threatening large targets, such as cities.

A Nuclear Depth Bomb (NDB) is the nuclear equivalent of the conventional depth charge and can be used in Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) for attacking submerged submarines.

A dirty bomb or radiological dispersal device (RDD) is a speculative radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives.

An electromagnetic pulse (commonly abbreviated as EMP, pronounced /iː.ɛm.piː/) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation.

Metel Anti-Ship Complex (Russian: противолодочный комплекс «Метель» 'Snowstorm'; NATO reporting name SS-N-14 Silex) is a Russian family of anti-submarine missiles.

Global Zero is a term in the literature of arms control that refers to the worldwide elimination of a weapons system, especially nuclear weapons or a particular class of nuclear weapons.