Do you think another nuclear bomb will ever be detonated?

[Kurain]

YABU - no
YANBU - yes

I think yes

sadly

This is a bit of a terrifying bedtime post! 😬

Sorry, I have probably consumed too much scaremongering news today

No

Turn off the news and go to bed with some calming music, you'll give yourself nightmares!

A small one, yes. I don’t think however we will escalate to nuclear war.

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/31/annie-jacobsen-nuclear-war-scenario

This is supposed to be plausible & an excellent book although not sure a good idea for you to read.

Apparently the president is the only & ultimate decision maker in bomb scenario?

Yes, undoubtedly.
It might just be a smaller one or in testing or it might be the big daddy - who knows? TBH I'd rather go instantly in a massive nuke explosion than slowly see humankind continue to kill this planet.

Great christmas thread

There's been over 2000 nuclear bombs detonated since 1945 and they are still being tested so yes, it's a virtual certainty that another one will be detonated.

Probably, but what are you going to do about it? Nothing. You can’t. So don’t worry about it.

I’ve read this, it’s sobering but very believable.

Aren’t the USA the only country who have ever detonated a nuclear bomb in anger/as a weapon.

@FeegleFrenzy it strikes me that all focus on climate change etc is disproportionate & energies should be similarly focused on nuclear disarmament?

Interestingly I read that if in parts of S America & NZ & Aus in Jacobsen’s scenario might survive albeit enduring nuclear winter (?)

I thought a ‘team’ made the decision re: Russia etc?

Probably but taking morals of it aside I don't how it helps the person 'pushing the button' as in the person leading the decision

Apart from thinking you are in a war video game what benefit is it to them?

@Edingril as awful as it is to contemplate, plausibly mistakes & miscommunications lead to escalation & an end of world scenario, as Jacobsen describes in book. Unless some kind of evil dictator rogue nation situation.

If we're including testing then 100% yes. Many.

If it's purely conflict related then most probably not but it's not impossible. There will always be someone out there crazy or hate filled enough to go down and take the world with them.

But tbh it's not nuclear war that will finish us off. We're fucking up the planet so badly we'll make it impossible for us to survive. That's how we'll go, not bombs.

If you mean any, yes. There have been multiple in our lifetimes (tests). There are also smaller ones that if detonated on the other side of the world, wouldn't affect the UK, for example. If you mean one that will cause all-out war and destroy the world, then no.
If only there was a way to get rid of them for good. It isn't really possible, but not having any at all would be ideal.

I see three possible scenarios.

A) There have been several well documented cases where nuclear war was nearly started by accident, (including the story of Stanislav Petrov, that was made into a film "The Man Who Saved the World"), and I think we can safely assume it's probably happened many other times that we don't know about.

So there's an alarming possibility it could happen purely by accident.

B) A terrorist organization / rogue state, will eventually make one and have no qualms using them against their enemy. (How to make one is open knowledge, and USA / Israel certainly are "concerned" about Iran and went to a lot of effort to disrupted their uranium enrichment project, see fascinating story of Stuxnet)

C) If it's true there are hundreds of unaccounted suitcase sized nuclear weapons all over the world following the fall of the USSR, they could fall into the "wrong hands". Suitcase nuclear device

No doubt there are dozens of other scenarios that we have no knowledge, so I would sleep easy as we're probably have no idea and little control over what will happen.