Nuclear warheads/weapons

Orbital Bomb. A satellite contg a nuclear warhead which circles the earth in a low orbit and which can be commanded to descend on a particular target. No such weapons are now known to be operational, and their deployment would be prohibited under the terms of the Outer Space Treaty of 1966. However, this treaty does not prohibit anything making less than a full circle around the earth, hence the FOBS... 

Background- Picatinny Arsenal is a development Arsenal concerned with research and engineering of military propellants, explosives and hardware for Army weapons of all kinds and for the adaption of nuclear and non-nuclear warheads to missiles... 

We all share a national security interest in working with Russia to assure that material removed from nuclear warheads is removed from weapons applications. Of course, there is no simple blending operation that will convert weapons plutonium into material that cannot be used for weapons without major effort... 

Nuclear weapon Fully integrated nuclear warhead with delivery system. 

The submarine or surface launched strategic weapon is turbofan-powered, with a solid propint tandem rocket booster and nuclear warhead. Conversion to tactical role involves substitution of tactical guidance, a conventional HE warhead, and a turbojet cruise engine in place of the turbofan... 

Quite often you hear only negative stories about nuclear reactions and radioactivity. Radioactivity can mutate DNA molecules and cause cancer. The use of nuclear reactors to produce energy can create nuclear waste, which can harm the environment. Nuclear power plants have been known to have accidents and expose many people to radioactive particles. Radioactive radon gas can be found in the homes that people live in. Nuclear warheads and nuclear weapons can cause mass destruction. On the other hand, there are many uses for radioisotopes that can be beneficial to our lives. In order for a radioisotope to be effective, it must be used properly and in the proper dosages. Some benefits of radioisotopes are described in the following chart. 

Corporal (Missile). The name applies to a US Army surface-co-surface ballistic missile designed for use as a tactical weapon against enemy troop concentrations or installations. It can carry either a conventional HE or a nuclear warhead Ref OrdTechTerm (1962), 85... 

The United States and Russia signed a Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in 1993 to eliminate two thirds of their nuclear warheads in ten years. By 1995, nearly 2,500 nuclear warheads had been removed from bombers and missiles in the two countries, according to U.S. government officials. ( Elimination, in this context, does not necessarily mean dismantlement many of the weapons that have been eliminated by treaty have been put in storage.) Although thousands of nuclear weapons still remain in the hands of many different governments, especially those of the U.S. and the Russian Federation, re-... 

An amount of 3.7 kg plutonium is also reported as typical for pits in U.S. and USSR devices. Corroborating evidence is given in a Russian report on early tests (Dubasov et al., 1995) for example, which describes many devices with 3-4 kg of plutonium, and in press reports that refer to nearly 3 kg of plutonium in each of 32 USSR nuclear warheads in a sunken submarine east of Bermuda. Similar values have been reported for the two torpedoes that sank with the Russian submarine Komsomolets north of Norway in 1989, and for the U.S. weapons involved in the air crashes at Thule and Palomares in the 1960s. 

Accidents resulting in direct radioactive releases to the sea are not well known as most of them are connected to wreckage of submarines. Eight nuclear submarines with nuclear weapons have been reported lost at sea, two US and six former USSR. The last known USSR wreck was the submarine Kom-somolets which sank in the Norwegian Sea southwest of Bear Island, on 7 April 1989. The activity content in the wreck is estimated by Russian authorities to be 1.55-2.8 PBq °Sr and 2.03-3 PBq Cs and the two nuclear warheads on board may contain about 16 TBq equivalent to 6-7 kg... 

In March, 1997, the fourth workshop was held in Amarillo, Texas, with the broadened topic of nuclear materials safety management. This subject was considered in the context of the entire nuclear fuel cycle. The focus was on the non-reactor segments with emphasis on the disposition of weapons plutonium from disassembled nuclear warheads. It was recognized that an accident in either country could considerably delay and possibly disrupt the efforts to disposition fissile weapons... 

Disassembly and disposal of nuclear weapons has also led to environmental contantination. The primary site for the disassembly of U.S. nuclear weapons is the Ptmtex Plant, located 17 miles northeast of Amarillo in the Texas panhandle. The United States has dismantled about 60,000 nuclear warheads since the 1940s. More than 12,000 plutonimn pits (hollow shells of plutonium encased in steel or other metal that are essential components of nuclear weapons) are stored in containers at Pantex. Plutonium, an element first produced in Manhattan Project reactors in 1942, has a half-Ufe of 24,000 years. 

The United States should help stop the spread of nuclear weapons by actively supporting and adhering to these treaties and by setting an example for the rest of the world by renouncing first use of nuclear weapons and development of new nuclear weapons. It should work with Russia to dismantle nuclear warheads and increase funding for programs to secure nuclear materials so they will not fall into the hands of individual and group nonstate actors. 

At present there are large stocks of plutonium in several countries. These have arisen from two sources. Firstly commercial thermal power reactors have produced large amounts of plutonium. In some countries this plutonium lies in the unreprocessed fuel in spent fuel stores in others, where the spent fuel has been reprocessed, it has been separated and stored. Secondly significant quantities of plutonium have been released by the decommissioning of nuclear weapons. The relaxation of the "cold war" in the last decade has seen a substantial reduction in the stockpiles of nuclear warheads held by nuclear weapons states, particularly the USA and the former USSR. The fissile material from these warheads is now also in store. 

BENT SPEAR. The U.S. Department of Defense uses BENT SPEAR as a code name for identifying and reporting an incident involving a nuclear weapon, nuclear warhead, or other nuclear component. See also BROKEN ARROW DULL SWORD EMPTY QUIVER FADED GIANT SPAIN HYDROGEN BOMB INCIDENT. 

INDIA. India has a well-developed nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) and ballistic missile defense establishment. It is currently destroying a chemical weapon (CW) stockpile in accordance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention(CWC). India has conducted at least six tests of nuclear weapons and was estimated to possess 50 nuclear warheads as of 2006. India is not a party to the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). See also ATOMS FOR PEACE SMILING BUDDHA. 

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