Nuclear weapons

In a recent test of two major US defense initiatives, an F-35A Lightning II has dropped a mock refurbished B61-12 nuclear bomb for the first time. The bomb was released from an internal bay while the stealth fighter was flying at supersonic speed.

Sandia National Laboratories has successfully conducted a full-scale, rocket-sled crash test of the new semi-tractor-trailer truck that will be used to transport nuclear weapons inside the United States.

July 16 marks 75 years since of the first detonation of an atomic bomb. Now famous as the Trinity Test, the giant explosion was the culmination of the ultra-secret Manhattan project and would within weeks lead to the end of the Second World War.

New research has shed light on how nuclear war could seriously alter the chemistry of Earth’s oceans, and in so doing damage the life that dwells within. The scientists used an advanced climate model to predict a range of nuclear scenarios.

Every year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists updates the status of its Doomsday Clock. The closer to midnight that the minute hand moves, the bigger the threat of catastrophe. And the 2020 clock is the most dire warning to date.

During and after nuclear bomb tests, levels of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 spiked in the atmosphere and in our bodies. Now, researchers have used that to carbon date our immune cells, helping solve a mystery about how our immune systems age.

​​Tiny glassy particles that litter the beaches near Hiroshima in Japan are likely the resolidified remains of the city destroyed by a US atomic bomb on the morning of August 6, 1945, according to the results of a newly published study.

A new study led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou indicates that radioactive carbon-14 produced by above-ground nuclear weapons tests in the mid-20th century has been found in the muscle tissues of crustaceans in the deepest parts of the ocean.

Relics of the Cold War that were once top secret are now public exhibits. Case in point is the Titan Missile Museum that was once home to a globe-spanning suborbital missile topped with a nine-megaton nuclear warhead and is now a museum dedicated to the dark days of mutually assured destruction.

The US Missile Defence Agency (MDA), Boeing, and Raytheon have pulled off an historic first as a dummy ICBM warhead was intercepted in space over the Pacific ocean by not one, but two interceptor missiles.

Another veteran of the Cold War has bowed out after the French Air Force retired its last operational Mirage 2000N supersonic nuclear bomber. In a military ceremony, General Olivier Taprest, Major General of the Air Force marked the official end of service for the aircraft after over 30 years.

MIT researchers are working on a system similar to computer encryption that allows arms inspectors to keep track of nuclear warheads without their owners worrying about giving away vital military secrets.