Nuclear weapons are the most destructive, inhumane and indiscriminate weapons ever created. Both in the scale of the devastation they cause, and in their uniquely persistent, spreading, genetically damaging radioactive fallout, they are unlike any other weapons. They are a threat to human survival.
The dangers of nuclear weapons arise from their very existence. Nine countries today possess an estimated 17,000 nuclear weapons, around 2,000 of which are kept on hair-trigger alert – ready for use within minutes. Most of today’s nuclear weapons are dozens of times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
Britain’s nuclear weapons system is called Trident. It is made up of three parts: the warheads – which are the explosive ‘bombs’, the missiles which carry them, and the submarines which carry the missiles.