LITTLE BOY WAS 4,000 kg in weight and 3 m in length and 60 kg of Uranium-235 was used to build it. It was the first atom bomb. On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 am, Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima by America to avenge Japan’s September 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack; Little Boy exploded 580 m above the ground; the explosion, equivalent to 12 kiloton TNT, took 45 minutes to envelope the city entirely in the nuclear cloud. After three days, on August 9, 1945, at 11:02 am, another Plutonium-239 based bomb, which was 4,500 kg in weight and 3 m in length was exploded 500 m above Nagasaki, Japan. It was Fat Man.

The immense impulse from nuclear explosions made air blow at a speed of 0.37 km per second both in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. After four hours of the blasts, it began to rain heavily. It was black rain full of acid. Some people, who managed to survive the attacks, just went mad, failing to find their families alive. In the delayed stage of the explosions, radioactivity broke the chromosomes of the body cells of the survivors, caused them cancer, and killed the cells inside their bones; the victims of ionised radiations got laid up with nausea, fever, secretion of blood from the gum and the nose, loss of hair and immune system, extreme weakness, and finally blood cancer; their hemopoietic tissues got severely damaged; they suffered from suffocation and over sensitivity; the beta ray burnt their skin; they lost their vision; their thyroid glands became smashed up; the cries of paralysed children, who were born to them, filled their houses. History shamefacedly recorded all this – the human devastation, the huge inhumanity, the abject condition surrounding the survivors.

A nuclear explosion forms a giant fireball and rapidly increases, while moving upward with its full radius and mass. The radius of this fireball depends on the intensity of the bomb; one-megaton bomb can produce a fireball of 1,200 m radius. Both fission and fusion reactions produce neutron, which reacts with nitrogen and emit gamma ray. The radioactive particles keep on floating in the troposphere and the stratosphere for a long time. Some radioactive particles settle down due to the gravity, in a colloidal form. A nuclear explosion produces immense heat, causes the air temperature to rise to 2,000 Kelvin, and creates nitrogen oxide. Nitrogen oxide forms nitrous acid; nitrous acid, acid rain. A nuclear explosion produces other poisonous radioisotopes which if get dissolved in acid rain and come in contact with a man, make the latter suffer from severe skin burn. The acid rain makes soil infertile and drinking water poisonous. The nuclear radiation, emitted in a nuclear explosion, increases the concentration of ozone in the air and prevents the growth of plants.

Unfortunately, accidents may occur in a nuclear power plant that contains enormous amount of refined radioactive materials, enough to demolish a country. The workers of a nuclear power plant sometimes fall prey to nuclear fallout. In such a plant, the workers are replaced at short intervals since they cannot work in front of the radioactive substances at a stretch, for several days. Till today, about more than 14,000 workers have been replaced at Tarapur nuclear plant.

Nowadays, the designing of a nuclear weapon is no longer a secret. Several third world countries are on the spree of random testing of nuclear weapons. International nuclear black marketing is now a million-dollar business. China tested the first bomb on October 16, 1964. India did the historic test at Pokhran, on May 18, 1974. Following these, Pakistan set up a gas centrifuge uranium power plant. England, Holland, and West Germany jointly devised the gas centrifuge system to enrich uranium commercially. To continue the nuclear research, Pakistan, which boasts of sophisticated military power and virtually heads the Islamic countries, got tremendous financial help from them and regularly bought uranium enrichment machines in disguise. Pakistan had even disobeyed IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) adamantly in its bid to build the bomb. Now Pakistan is a nuclear power.

Future wars will be nuclear wars. If unfortunately wars happen, the nuclear weapons will be cast at the industrial areas of the enemy countries. To destroy a place having more than 30 lakh people, a 10-megaton bomb is sufficient. If a one-megaton bomb is exploded about 40 km above a country, the massive electro magnetic impulse will make electricity, radar, and others electronics communication systems go out of order in an instant. The atomic war can miserably stop human progress. So, many countries are now thinking of building underground radioactivity proof homes or fallout shelters. It cannot be guaranteed that such homes or shelters will be totally fruitful.

Nuclear weapons have given international politics and diplomacy a new dimension. People all over the world chant slogans against nuclear research projects. The nuclear waste, kept inside the soil in large steel tanks, also produce hazardous radiation. This radiation makes underground water undrinkable. This radiation severely affects the marine life. As the longevity of a nuclear power plant is about 20 years, it is certain that people cannot escape the menace when the plant is abandoned. Despite protests and oppositions, most countries are still frantically trying to carry out their nuclear programmes. The tropical countries like India can exploit the best from the solar energy system. Both first world and third world countries should join hands to take the advantage of solar energy. The politicians adore power and instant fame. The bomb gives them confidence, power, and instant fame. But nobody is endowed with the legitimate right to play with the lives of the innocent people.

Neilay Khasnabish