Many historians argue that the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a turning point in mankind's history, events that marked the beginning of humanity's ability to instantly self-annihilate. After the United States had its first successful nuclear test in 1945, the nuclear club was soon expanded to include tests by the Soviet Union (1949), the United Kingdom (1952), France (1960), China (1964), India (1974), Pakistan (1998), and North Korea (2006).
As of today, there are nine countries generally recognized to own nuclear weapons, with Iran actively seeking to join this group. In order of the estimated size of the nuclear arsenal, from largest to smallest, are: Russia, the United States, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. Notably, the five members of the Security Council (Russia, the United States, France, China and the United Kingdom) were the first developers of nuclear weapons and currently have the five largest nuclear stockpiles in the world.
While these nine countries are generally recognized as owning nuclear weapons, that doesn't mean that they are the only countries that possess nuclear weapons. Countries that are not officially recognized as being part of the nuclear club, such as Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey and the Netherlands, deploy and store American nuclear weapons as part of NATO agreements. Other non-nuclear countries such as South Korea, Canada and Greece previously had similar arrangements with the United States.
For those tracking the volume of nuclear weapons, the American nuclear stockpile peaked in volume in 1966 and has been dramatically reduced since then. A total of around 67,500 nuclear weapons had been developed by the United States but currently there are only about 8,500 due to dismantling programs. The Russian arsenal is also currently about one-third of the level of its all-time peak volume.
Notes: Data source for graph on U.S. nuclear warheads is Wikipedia Commons; Data source for nuclear warhead count is the Federation of American Scientists
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekZtK4ZBMt4
Sorry, that the best that I could figure out for posting a YouTube video like with my iPhone. The video was done by Isao Hashimoto in 2003. Showing every nuclear explosion between 1945 and 1998. '2053'.
BOMARC CIM-10; Warhead: W40 7-10 kiloton
Honest John; Warhead W7 8-61 kiloton
CF-104 Starfighter; Warhead: B57 bomb 5-20 kilotons; B28 bomb 70-350 kt; B43 bomb 1 Mt
VooDoo weapons test; Combat Warhead: W25 1.5 kilotons
but then we smartened up under a liberal government and got rid of them!
Except for North Korea and Israel, does the IAEA back this up these numbers?(I might have the wrong watchdog agency for weapons)
http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=68177
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ef2_1270995941
The US being #1.
Gives a whole new meaning to a position wherein one can call "the shots!"
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Then there's the new guys, Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal larger than the Uk and it is still growing.
North Korea, who knows?
India, well their history of restraint may be tested by Pakistan next door.
Israel, well if Iran hits it with a nuke in their attempt to wipe out the country (as they keep saying they will) would that embolden the neighbours to invade while Israel is weak, Would Israel nuke every Arab capital (As well as the whole of Iran) in reply?
As for the top five arms dealers, Germany is in third place. the UK is in 6th.
Why did you leave that out?
The destructive potential of nuclear weapons is undeniably off the scale, but the reality is that they so far they have proven to be remarkably stabilizing. It is occasionally said that an alien threat would serve to bind the nations of the world and end conflict. Our respective fear of our own nuclear weapons serves this same purpose.
North Korea and Iran will not use them either. But the possession of nuclear weapons will limit conflict in their respective regions to proxy or terrorist strikes. Border disputes will cease and the political geography will become set for generations.
psychology
but the thing is we might never get a common enemy and we might not be smart enough to understand that person x and person y might have different names, races, and attitudes but they are still people
but at least some people are learning this
My search engine tells me we have about 150 million square kms of land on our planet and my calculator says that's about one warhead for every 7500 square km.
Of course that includes Antarctica and all the world's deserts and swamps.
If one farming website is right, the amount of land that can grow food is about 1/32 of all land on the planet. Divided by 20,000 warheads, that seems to leave us with roughly one warhead for 225 square kilometers -- roughly the size of Martha's Vineyard island off Cape Cod.
Please check my math. I'm far too depressed to bother.
What I don't understand, the US and Russia both have enough nukes to destroy the entire world dozen times over. When you make enough nukes to destroy the world one time, why make more? What is the logic behind this behind this spending?
Proliferation is never the answer, especially when the new proliferation rush will be in a very unstable area.