Nuclear Weapons - Coursework Example

Currently, such as weapon would have a larger toll in modern city such as New York and Paris. In addition, a ground level explosion would lead to immense death s due to the intensity of local fallout that would lead to deaths within an hour or even two weeks as a result of radiation. However, such a phenomena was absent in the Japanese cities. After the 1945 incidents, there was an international outcry which resulted in the formation of international bodies such as the UN in order to regulate the building of nuclear weapons.

However, this effort has failed miserably. It is of great importance to note that the two bombs that were initially used have been expanded (Kapur 2007). For instance, current bombs have a common nuclear yield of 150,000-500,000 tones. This would have a major devastating impact on the world if used in time of war. Nuclear proliferation entails the spread of nuclear weapons to countries that were not recognized as Nuclear Weapon States. Initially, nuclear weapons developed as a contest of superiority between the superpowers.

Each powerful country required weapons that would infringe more losses to the enemy than the others that were in existence. This exerted the pressure on the countries to come up with weapons that would cause mass destruction. This was mainly during the Second World War when the two warring sides tried to look for weapons that would have a large number of casualties. The initial weapons that were in existence were tested during this war. However, they were not effective, an aspect that forced the US to come up with nuclear weapons especially because the war would provide the platform to test these weapons.

Constant threats by the Soviet Union forced the US government to increase its budget towards military research. This is to ensure that the military was well equipped to face the enemies. After the World War