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Advantages And Disadvantages Of Nuclear Weapons

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Science always starts out with an idea. Sometimes these ideas are created with a purpose and other times they are stumbled upon by accident. Although it only takes one person to come up with an idea, it takes hundreds more to prove it.This applies to a vast majority of things including the discovery of nuclear energy. It all began with the idea of the atom. Greek philosopher, Democritus of Abdera believed that all matter is composed of minuscule particles we know today as atoms; thus a chain reaction began, with scientists all over the world researching the simplest form of matter, leading to the creation of the periodic table and the discovery of subatomic particles. In 1895 a German man named Roentgen discovered the X-ray which led Henry Bequerel to find out that the rays emit spontaneously from Uranium salts. During this time, Pierre and Marie Curie studied this newfound evidence and isolated Polonium and Radium that exhibited this spontaneous energy production, naming it radioactivity. Afterwards, in 1899, Ernest Rutherford distinguished alpha- and beta- radiation from studying x-rays and then learned that most of the mass of an atom is concentrated in the center, discovering what we know today as the nucleus. Along with this discovery, he theorized neutrons …show more content…

First, nuclear weapons can possibly lead to radiation disaster, affecting large masses of land. Although the radiation will go away instantly, the threat it poses to humankind and the environment stays. Second, the entire industry in charge of nuclear weapons is actively producing radioactive waste and this waste is can be found in everyday products such as: “clothing, water purifier resin, hand tools and the materials used in building nuclear reactors.” Exposure to this radioactive waste can lead to disabilities and cancer. Lastly, residual radiation can essentially destroy wildlife and the environment for hundreds of

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