This
August marks 80 years since the world witnessed the horror of nuclear warfare.
On August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, instantly killing over 200,000 people, most
of them civilians, and leaving a toxic legacy that would scar generations (Barnaby, 1995).
What was intended as an end to World War II became the beginning of an even more dangerous chapter in human history — a nuclear arms race that has yet to cease.
From
Horror to Arms Race
In
the wake of the devastation, instead of reflection and restraint, world powers
began building more advanced and powerful nuclear weapons (Paul, 1995). The Cold War era
saw thousands of tests, devastating ecosystems and communities. Entire Pacific
islands were rendered uninhabitable, and radioactive fallout from desert tests
left long-lasting health consequences for surrounding populations (Forrow et al., 1998).
In
1961, the Soviet Union detonated the Tsar Bomb — a hydrogen bomb with a yield
of 60 megatons, over 3,000 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed
Hiroshima. By the 1980s, the U.S. and USSR had amassed over 60,000 nuclear
warheads combined — enough to obliterate the Earth many times over. This
doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) continues to haunt global
military strategies.
Forgotten
Bombs, Silent Dangers
The
nuclear age has also been littered with accidents — some still unresolved. In
1966, a mid-air collision over Palomares, Spain, released four U.S.
thermonuclear bombs, turning the region into one of the most radioactive zones
in Europe (Vilarós, 2004). One of those
bombs was never fully recovered.
Similarly,
a 1958 U.S. military incident off Tybee Island, Georgia, saw a 3.8 megaton
nuclear bomb lost in the sea — still missing. Several Soviet submarines
carrying nuclear missiles, including the K-129, sank during the Cold War and
now lie deteriorating on the ocean floor.
According
to the SIPRI Yearbook 2025, the world still holds around 12,512 nuclear
warheads, with Russia and the U.S. possessing over 90% of them. New
developments include China's rapid expansion of its arsenal, reported to have
surpassed 500 warheads, and North Korea's continued testing, including a new
solid-fuel missile unveiled in early 2025.
In
the backdrop of these developments, geopolitical tensions remain high. The
ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, coupled with the instability in
regions like South Asia and the Korean Peninsula, has brought the nuclear
threat back into the spotlight. Just this year, UN Secretary-General António
Guterres reiterated that “humanity is just one miscalculation away from nuclear
catastrophe.” He cited increasing risks from AI-integrated military systems,
cyberattacks on nuclear command structures, and unguarded escalation in
regional conflicts.
The
Threat to Nuclear Facilities
In
the ongoing Ukraine conflict, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant — Europe’s
largest — remains under constant threat (Suh et al., 2025). Nuclear energy
infrastructure, once seen as civilian and safe, is now a potential target,
raising new fears of disaster from sabotage or accident. Meanwhile, questions
about the fate of Ukraine's Soviet-era nuclear weapons, surrendered in the
1990s under security assurances, remain a painful reminder of unfulfilled
international guarantees.
Lessons
from the Cosmos
When
we think about our capacity for destruction, it can be eye-opening to look up
at the vastness of the universe. Imagine a gamma-ray burst—an incredibly
powerful explosion that can happen when a massive star dies in a supernova or
when two neutron stars collide. These bursts can occur from as far away as
2,000 light-years. The energy released during a gamma-ray burst is
mind-blowing; it can emit more radiation than all the nuclear weapons ever
created combined.
Now,
let’s turn our attention to a Type Ia supernova. This explosive event happens
when a white dwarf star pulls in enough material from a companion star and
reaches a critical mass, causing a runaway reaction. The energy released in
this explosion is equivalent to about 10²⁸ megatons of TNT—this is a tremendous
amount, far greater than the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated, the
Tsar Bomba, which had a yield of about 50 megatons.
These
incredible yet frightening cosmic events remind us how small our human
conflicts are compared to the immense power of the universe. They serve as a
stark reminder of how fragile our existence is in the grand scheme of things.
It prompts us to reflect on our place in this magnificent and, at times,
dangerous universe.
Commemorating
80 Years: Remembering, Relearning, Rebuilding
As
the world commemorates the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, memorials, peace events, and survivor testimonies echo the same
message: "Never again." Yet we stand at a critical crossroads. Arms
control treaties like New START (The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) are
expiring. Major nuclear powers have yet to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition
of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Disarmament talks have stalled, and global spending
on nuclear modernization is increasing. In the words of Setsuko Thurlow , a Hibakusha
(meaning an atomic bomb survivor), "Nuclear weapons did not save us in
Hiroshima. They will not save us now." The choice before humanity is stark
— continue investing in mechanisms of mutual destruction, or move courageously
toward global disarmament, cooperation, and a shared future.
As
we remember the tragic past, let us choose peace, not power. Let us honour the
dead not just with words, but with action — because 80 years later, the shadow
of the mushroom cloud still hangs over us all.
References:
Barnaby,
F. (1995). The effects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Medicine,
Conflict and Survival. https://doi.org/10.1080/07488009508409217
Forrow, L., Blair, B. G., Helfand, I.,
Lewis, G., Postol, T., Sidel, V., Levy, B. S., Abrams, H., & Cassel, C.
(1998). Accidental Nuclear War—A Post–Cold War Assessment. New England
Journal of Medicine, 338(18), 1326–1332.
https://doi.org/10.1056/nejm199804303381824
Paul, T. V. (1995). The Paradox of Power:
Nuclear Weapons in a Changed World. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political,
20(4), 479–500. https://doi.org/10.1177/030437549502000404
Suh, K.-S., Kim, S., Park, K., Min, B.-I.,
Choi, Y., Kim, J., Kim, M.-C., Kim, H., & Kim, K.-O. (2025). Radiological
impact assessment of a hypothetical accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power
plant. Annals of Nuclear Energy, 223, 111680.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111680
Vilarós, T. (2004). The lightness of
terror: Palomares, 1966. Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 5(2),
165–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/1463620042000244615
Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute. (2025). SIPRI Yearbook 2025: Armaments,
disarmament and international security. SIPRI. https://www.sipri.org/yearbook/2025
United Nations Office for Disarmament
Affairs. (2025). Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. United Nations. https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. (n.d.).
Testimonies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors. Hiroshima Peace
Memorial Museum. https://hpmmuseum.jp/?lang=eng
International Atomic Energy Agency.
(2025). IAEA annual report 2024. IAEA. https://www.iaea.org/publications/reports
Global Security Review. (2025). Global
Security Review 2025: Trends and threats. Global Security Review. https://www.globalsecurityreview.com
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