Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 3 - Nukes for War and Peacetime

  • from Part I - Existential Threats: The Four Most Pressing Dangers Facing Humankind
  • Michael D. Bess, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
  • Book:
    Planet in Peril
    Published online:
    13 October 2022
    Print publication:
    13 October 2022, pp 36-45

  • Summary

    Despite significant reductions in nuclear arsenals after the Cold War, the world’s nuclear nations still are pointing thousands of warheads at each other, using systems that are vulnerable to human error, miscalculation, or cyberwarfare. Over the past decades, humankind has come hair-raisingly close in several well-documented instances to unleashing full-scale nuclear war. The logic of arms races makes it very hard for nations to resist the temptation of modernizing and building up their arsenals. On the other hand, new designs for nuclear reactors – whether for fission or fusion processes – hold out the tantalizing possibility of safe, cheap, and abundant electricity. Nuclear-generated electricity does not release greenhouse gases, and therefore could play a key role in creating a sustainable energy system over the coming century.