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Nuclear weapon — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-10-15T17:38:38.791Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: 8279f231d2dbe21fae22b6650ea971d2d9fdea26d18718abd864a2a7b8d8721f
Stable URL of this page: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_23fa620ba575

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Nuclear weapon — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_23fa620ba575 (Metraipolis archive dc_23fa620ba575, sha256 8279f231d2dbe21fae22b6650ea971d2d9fdea26d18718abd864a2a7b8d8721f)

BibTeX

@misc{dc23fa620ba575,
  title = {Nuclear weapon — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_23fa620ba575; sha256 8279f231d2dbe21fae22b6650ea971d2d9fdea26d18718abd864a2a7b8d8721f},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either nuclear fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and nuclear fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. Nuclear warfare is widely considered a global catastrophic risk. Nine sovereign states are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons as of 2026: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. The majority of nuclear weapons have energy yields between 100 and 1,000 kilotons of TNT. Yields in the low kilotons can destroy cities. The effects of nuclear weapons include extreme blast damage, heat, ionizing radiation, and firestorms, followed by radioactive nuclear fallout, an electromagnetic pulse, radar blackout, and acute or chronic radiation syndrome in humans and animals. Hundreds of nuclear explosions would likely cause nuclear winter and nuclear famine. The first nuclear weapons were developed by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada during World War II in the Manhattan Project. Production requires a large scientific-industrial complex, primarily for fissile material, either nuclear reactors and reprocessing plants producing plutonium, or uranium enrichment facilities. Nuclear weapons have been used twice in war, in the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people. Nuclear deterrence, including mutually assured destruction, aims to prevent nuclear warfare via the threat of unacceptable damage and the danger of escalation to nuclear holocaust. A nuclear arms race for weapons and their delivery systems was a defining component of the Cold War. Nuclear weapons have had yields between 50 megatons for the Tsar Bomba, and 10 tons for the W54. Strategic nuclear weapons are targeted against civilian, industrial, and military infrastructure, while tactical nuclear weapons are intended for battlefield use. Strategic weapons led to the development of dedicated intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missile, and nuclear strategic bombers, collectively known as the nuclear triad. Tactical weapons options included shorter-range ground-, air-, and sea-launched missiles, artillery, demolition munitions, torpedoes, and depth charges, but they have become less salient since the end of the Cold War. Two nuclear-armed states have nuclear sharing arrangements, stationing their weapons in six other countries: US weapons are deployed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Turkey; Russian weapons are deployed in Belarus. Roughly 40 countries have defense policies based on nuclear deterrence, including more than 30 non-nuclear-weapon states under extended deterrence (also known as nuclear umbrella) agreements such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Tema degli esploratori: fiducia digitale e crittografia (deposito sistematico; ricerca «transparency log»).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «Nuclear weapon» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon
Wikidata Q12802 (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12802
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1373745430, consultata il 2026-10-15T16:28:57.664Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: ca59a5703c1a98f3f38036bf3cd8b1a7774b92d0a5014fec420a86181412093c