The first ever nuclear test was conducted on July 16th 1945 in New Mexico. It began with the Hanford Engineer Works and the Manhattan Project, a secret project that was created in 1943 to produce plutonium for the first American nuclear weapons. This was also the project that delivered the plutonium to drop the bomb on Nagasaki Japan, marking the end of the second world war.
Even before the Manhattan Project began the controversy started amongst scientists. German born refugee Max Born were horrified by even the proposition. Others, Szilard namly, decided that the development of the bomb would be the best deterrent to a German attack rather than a tool that was to leave the arsenal. US President Roosevelt and the British prime minister Winston Churchill decided to go through with the development of the technology and continue to have them post-war to try and prevent further conflicts. Roosevelt and Churchill met in private several times before deciding to use the bomb against the Japanese. The purpose of doing this was two-fold: It promptly ended the war with the Japanese to spare American lives and it demonstacted to the Soviet Union how powerful the United States weapons were.
Mr. Dag Hammarskjöld organized some of the first United Nations International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of of Atomic Energy. A swedish diplomat, economist, and author, Hammarskjold was well respected in his field until a fatal plane crash when on a mission for the United Nations. There is some evidence to suggest that the plane was shot down.
The treaty on The Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. It was a landmark treaty that was supposed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, have cooperation when it comes to peaceful applications of nuclear energy, and further the goal of nuclear disarmament. It was open for signature in 1968, and was officially enforced in 1970. A total of 195 states have signed the treaty.
The Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (now known as the Bangkok Treaty) was signed on 15 December 1995 by 10 countries of Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Vietnam, Burma, Laos, and Cambodia. The treaty says that the states who have signed are not allowed to own, possess, trade, or otherwise be affiliated with nuclear weaponry.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his “Atoms for Peace” address to the UN General Assembly in 1953. In this proposal, he called to share information for peaceful purposes with other countries. This speech led to the creation of the organization International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Even with the Treaty Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, it has great downfalls. Iraq had demonstrated its ability to possess Nuclear Weapons without being noticed before the Golf War. After this, the IAEA developed a technique called “environmental monitoring” was created to test for signs of nuclear activity in the air.
The Bush Administration implemented many efforts to prevent Iraq, Iran, and North Korea from obtaining nuclear weapons, but in ways that are contradictory to the NPT treaty. Because of the United States lack of implementation of the NPT it could be said that other states will use it as an excuse to withdraw.