Nuclear fission military aspects

See also Electric Power, Generation of Environmental Problems and Energy Use Explosives and Propellants Meitner, Lise Military Energy Use, Historical Aspects of Molecular Energy Nuclear Energy Nuclear Energy, Historical Evolution of the Use of Nuclear Fission Fuel Nuclear Fusion Nuclear Waste. 

One of most important aspects of the Cold War was the race to develop and deploy nuclear weapons. The early arms race was largely focused on nuclear fission, but by the 1950s the much more powerful fusion weapons were the main area of development. The competition, however, was not only military, and the quest for new elements became a minor but important competition, primarily between American laboratories and Soviet ones. Because the equipment used to do nuclear research was used to produce elements and material for weapons, the link between the synthesis of new elements and the arms race was direct if one side could produce a new element, it revealed that that side s equipment, resources, and scientists had an advantage over the opposition. Since the equipment, resources, and scientists were also part of the nuclear arms development system, the implication was that the advantage would extend to the weapons. Even without the arms race, the competition to synthesize new elements was fierce, since international scientific status and even Nobel Prizes could be gained by such work. 

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