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Asked by to Thomas, Simon, Clara, Becky on 17 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Simon Albright answered on 17 Mar 2014:
There’s a couple of answers to that. Mainly because very clever people worked out how to make them in the Manhattan Project during WWII.
But the reason we have them still is that everyone else has them so we don’t want to be alone in not. There’s a principle called “MAD” which stands for Mutually Assured Destruction. And it basically means that no one will ever use a nuke because if they do everyone else will use them and we’re all doomed. Maybe not very comforting but there’s been vastly less war since we developed nuclear arms and part of the reason may be that everyone is too scared of the risk that nuclear weapons might be used.
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Thomas Elias Cocolios answered on 17 Mar 2014:
Everything that is researched gets weaponised. When Einstein first came up with his matter-to-energy relation, he knew right away what it would mean. At the same time, he knew that letting it out in the open meant that it could be used for good as well.
It is part of human nature to work for self preservation. You need to have the biggest gun to defend yourself. And once you have that gun, no one else wants to bully you any longer. It is a called a deterrent. It is not so much a question of using it as much as showing it off. That was actually the point of the two bombs that were dropped in Japan: showing the world (as in Russia) that the bombs existed and that they could be used.
The fact, however, that it has been used ever since goes along the lines of what Simon described.
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Becky Martin answered on 17 Mar 2014:
We have nuclear bombs to keep ourselves and other nations safe by deterrent; which as Simon and Thomas said, is a process that is never actually intended to be used, but works just because it exists!
Only a handful of very specific countries can have nuclear weapons and these are known as “nuclear weapon states”, and protect themselves and surrounding nations by maintaining their deterrent. We also have the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to ensure that not just anyone can make a nuclear weapon, and this is upheld internationally.
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Clara Nellist answered on 19 Mar 2014:
The principle of MAD, or mutually assured destruction, as Simon describes it is the reason many countries say that we still have nuclear weapons. Did you know that it’s not enough to have them though. You have to convince the other side that you’re crazy enough to use them! Otherwise, the principle of MAD doesn’t work. It also requires that there are lots of nuclear weapons spread around, because the other side has to not be able to wipe out all of the weapons in one go (in this case they win and there’s no MAD).
But, there is one good reason I can think of to have nuclear weapons. That is to destroy asteroids heading towards the Earth. Since they’re the most destructive weapon we have, it’s possible that one day we might need them to save us from the fate of the dinosaurs (who didn’t have nuclear weapons)!
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