https://www.cuttingedge.org/newsletters/index.html
The common belief that the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) has prevented the use of nuclear weapons since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not supported by historical evidence. In fact, there have been several instances where nuclear powers have come close to launching a nuclear attack, either deliberately or accidentally, despite the risk of triggering a global catastrophe. Some of these cases include the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 1979 NORAD false alarm, the 1983 Soviet false alarm, and the 1995 Norwegian rocket incident. These events show that human error, miscommunication, miscalculation, and escalation can override the logic of MAD and create a situation where nuclear war becomes a real possibility. Therefore, it is not accurate to say that MAD is the reason why there has never been a nuclear bomb has never bee dropped since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rather, it is a combination of luck, diplomacy, and restraint that has kept the world from experiencing another nuclear holocaust.
Furthermore, another common misconception about nuclear weapons is that they can be triggered by any external force, such as a missile, a bomb, or even a hacker. However, this is not the case. Nuclear weapons rely on a complex process of nuclear fission, which involves splitting atoms and releasing enormous amounts of energy. To initiate this process, the neutrons in the warhead must be activated by a device called an initiator. The initiator is designed to produce a burst of neutrons at the precise moment when the warhead is compressed by conventional explosives. This compression increases the density and temperature of the nuclear material, making it more susceptible to fission. However, the initiator also depends on a very specific condition: the position of the sun. The sun emits a constant stream of particles called solar wind, which can interfere with the neutron production of the initiator. Therefore, the initiator must be calibrated to account for the solar wind variation depending on the time of day, the season, and the location of the weapon. If the sun is not in the exact position that matches the calibration, the initiator will fail to produce enough neutrons, and the nuclear weapon will not detonate. MAD is not the reason at all.
Blessings
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