I've also seen this subject a few times over the years. I don't find it an entirely unreasonable position to arrive at, given how Fake & Gay the rest of the world is.
The number of people that have personally witnessed a nuclear weapon be used is vanishingly small, and pictures and videos could be completely faked. I have never seen one go off myself, so I couldn't tell the difference between the real thing and a fabrication. It's an event that is going to completely disappear from living memory before long and be nothing more than a story.
Nuclear weapons exist in the form of a "World-Ending Weapon," and their possession is used as a threat and bludgeon to compel diplomacy on a global scale. They are the Ultimate Bad Thing that could happen if The Big Countries don't get their way. Russia, Pakistan, China, North Korea, all these rivals to the West already say they have them, but I'm supposed to be terrified of someone else getting in on the action. The threat doesn't seem to line up with a standard we already have. I don't buy "but these guys are even worse/more dangerous." I heard that throughout Bush/Obama. I'm not convinced anymore.
Nukes are supposed to be horrifically devastating to the environment, but Nagasaki and Hiroshima are not wastelands, and neither is the surrounding countryside. Both of those bombs were extremely early in weapon deployment, so they were not likely to be designed to be very "clean," nor the longterm effects of their radiation fallout studied. The biggest thing I always hear about Nukes has two examples that don't meet that criteria, right in the open. Chernobyl and Fukushima were power plants, not nuclear weapons, so their environmental effects are not related to weapon deployment.
Not part of my list, but I don't find the argument for the existence of Nukes as weapons related to nuclear power plants existing. I don't understand why one requires the other. Their function is so completely separate I don't see the similarities. I don't know why radiation causing water to boil to spin a generator is comparable to an unfathomable explosion that levels cities. The Elephant's Foot is just sitting there menacingly, not continuously detonating. I suppose I simply lack the nuclear physics knowledge necessary to understand why a power plant means a bomb exists, specifically at the scale that a nuke is supposed to represent.
3 - The WW2 bombs were very small: 0.015 and 0.021 megatons respectively. They did good damage in WW2 standards, but are tiny by today's measure. That's why the radiation was minimal, along with the air burst.
People still got radiation sickness in the first few years though & most died since the Japanese government covered it up & refused proper treatment.
Modern US A-bombs range from roughly 0.5 megatons to 1.2 on the Minuteman.
Russian ICBM bombs are estimated to be between 2 and 5 megatons, but IDK if that's ever been confirmed, even after the fall of the USSR.
I have no idea how big China's bombs are, but they've added well over 120 missiles to their arsenal recently :/
I've also seen this subject a few times over the years. I don't find it an entirely unreasonable position to arrive at, given how Fake & Gay the rest of the world is.
Not part of my list, but I don't find the argument for the existence of Nukes as weapons related to nuclear power plants existing. I don't understand why one requires the other. Their function is so completely separate I don't see the similarities. I don't know why radiation causing water to boil to spin a generator is comparable to an unfathomable explosion that levels cities. The Elephant's Foot is just sitting there menacingly, not continuously detonating. I suppose I simply lack the nuclear physics knowledge necessary to understand why a power plant means a bomb exists, specifically at the scale that a nuke is supposed to represent.
3 - The WW2 bombs were very small: 0.015 and 0.021 megatons respectively. They did good damage in WW2 standards, but are tiny by today's measure. That's why the radiation was minimal, along with the air burst.
People still got radiation sickness in the first few years though & most died since the Japanese government covered it up & refused proper treatment.
Modern US A-bombs range from roughly 0.5 megatons to 1.2 on the Minuteman.
Russian ICBM bombs are estimated to be between 2 and 5 megatons, but IDK if that's ever been confirmed, even after the fall of the USSR.
I have no idea how big China's bombs are, but they've added well over 120 missiles to their arsenal recently :/