. Unites States, China, Russia, Israel, France United Kingdom, India, Pakistan
are all nuclear powers. Most of them have nuclear weapon carrying ICBMs. North Korea and Iran are already in possession of are developing nuclear warheads. Belgium, Sweden, Argentina and Brazil are on the way to produce nuclear bombs. Countries like Ukraine, Romania, Syria, and the like are trying to enrich uranium to acquire atomic power. Many others are aspiring to develop the necessary technology. There are a number of terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda, the Liberation Tigers of Sri Lanka, who are frantically trying to get in possession of a nuclear bomb. If the number of nuclear powers are doubled or tripled, we will be very much nearer to a nuclear
holocaust. The safeguard of these
weapons may not be fool proof. If anyone comes into the hands of a terror organization, that is a dangerous scenario. If terrorists succeed in towing a nuclear weapon of a 20 kiloton capacity, it can destroy New York or Washington or London. Te after math will definitely be a nuclear war. This is a dangerous scenario. Threat of a nuclear holocaust becomes a distinct possibility. If the war heads man has assembled get triggered they can eliminate human life many times over. A border conflict between two nuclear powers can trigger large scale wars. During the last infiltration and border dispute between Pakistan and India threats of using atom bombs were raised by one side. Luckily it did not escalate and died down. India and Pakistan have fought so many wars and still they nurture deep mistrust and grudges which can trigger into nasty wars. A single terrorist act from one of these nations can bring about a nuclear war between the two. The superpowers may take sides and a holocaust may be imminent. Faced with unreasonable threats of war nations may react irrationally. If North Korea attack the South Korea or Japan or if China attacks Taiwan, the United States may be dragged into war with the perpetrators. And that is getting things out of control. China is becoming a super power and a new cold war could be on between the United States and the communist giant. China has more than 2500 warheads and ICBMs to deploy them where required. America, China and Russia has enough war heads to kill the whole of human race many times over. One pound of plutonium, if finely powdered and inhaled can kill up to 2,000,000,000 people!, The United States alone has over 40,000 tones of plutonium. Russia may be having more lethal weapons in its arsenal. The Russians systems could be in a serious decay. If a missile is launched due to human or computer error? The consequences will be far reaching. Until the entire nuclear weapons are destroyed effectively, mankind is not safe at all. A maverick dictator can come to control the keys to the nuclear weapons. If he becomes panicky or comes under paranoia he may unlock the trigger and there goes the end of man and his civilization. When the cold war between the erstwhile super powers were at its nadir, the world has come very close to holocausts a number of times. The tension has been eased between the two and holocaust has receded for the time being. But any time a leader may feel threatened or feel his country is going to be attacked and this may trigger a dangerous war. As more and more countries are acquiring the nuclear capability, the chances for a nuclear war has increased. The minute hand of the ‘Doomsday Clock’ maintained by the Manhattan Project Scientists have been moved from 9 to 7 minutes to midnight by the directors in 2002. But are we that close to holocaust? May not be. Nobody wants to commit suicide. With the super-power ( past and present) tensions eased, there may small threats still remain from developing regions. There will be effective interferences from world bodies and other powerful nations and the war will be contained. But there is a dark side looming: the terrorists acquiring nuclear weapons. This may not necessarily lead to a holocaust although the consequences would be disastrous. The clock can be reset sufficiently backward. Man is going to be here for long..