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Global Environmental Issue

In: Science

Submitted By kaaaaka
Words 1622
Pages 7
Xiaochen Yang
Dr. Brian H. Lower, Ph.D.
ENR 2100
July 10th , 2015
Nuclear Legacy
1.a) United States in New conducted the first nuclear test in Mexico just south of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1945 (Lower and Lower). When the Cold War broke out shortly after the United States used their bombs on Japan, Russia spent all their energy on trying to overtake the United States in the arms race. By 1961, the Russians have taken the lead. At that time, the United States were capable of advanced targeting methods for their nuclear arsenal. To compensate, the Russians chose to widen the area of their nuclear bomb’s effectivity. There is a a 50-60 megaton Soviet atomic bomb codenamed Tsar to get the culmination of this competition (Lower and Lower).
1.b) A New York Times article titled Obama’s Youth Shaped His Nuclear-Free Vision reads, to achieve the goal of global denuclearization for Mr. Obama is very crucial. (Broad and Sanger A1). He thought that it is too naive to keep developing the advanced nuclear weapons in order to stop the countries like Iran and North Krean. The most powerful man in the world having this kind of opinion is a great step towards the stoppage of production of nuclear weapons.
This, however, looks like it’s the most that can be done right now with nuclear weapons. Nuclear testing sites such as Los Alamos National Laboratory fields and the Novaya Zemlya are still largely left deserted. When it comes to cleaning up of ecosystems affected by nuclear waste, it seems like Russia and the United State’s strategy is to just let the nature take over just like the ghost-town aura of Chernobyl and Fukushima.
When it comes to the disposal of atomic warheads on the other hand, both Russia and the United States are proactive at reusing them as fuel to their respective nuclear reactors. This has become known as the Megatons to Megawatts program.

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