One state, South Africa, fabricated nuclear weapons in the past, but as its apartheid regime was coming to an end it disassembled its arsenal, acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and accepted full-scope international safeguards. Israel is also widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it does not acknowledge having them. The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons-and that acknowledge possessing such weapons-are (chronologically by date of first test) the United States, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, the People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are suspected of seeking them. Since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for testing purposes and demonstrations. The role of the bombings in Japan's surrender, and their ethical status, remain the subject of scholarly and popular debate. These two bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 people-mostly civilians-from acute injuries sustained from the explosions. Three days later, on 9 August, a plutonium implosion-type fission bomb code-named " Fat Man" was exploded over Nagasaki, Japan. On 6 August 1945, a uranium gun-type fission bomb code-named " Little Boy" was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Two nuclear weapons have been used in the course of warfare, both times by the United States near the end of World War II. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction, and their use and control have been a major focus of international relations policy since their debut. Thus, even a small nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate an entire city by blast, fire, and radiation. Ī thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg) can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 1.2 million tons (1.1 million tonnes) of TNT. The first thermonuclear ("hydrogen") bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 10,000,000 tons of TNT. The first fission ("atomic") bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 20,000 tons of TNT. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion.
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