Nuclear Weapons States........

Introduction:-
Thank you my dear friends for reading my first post. Needless to say, your comments were very helpful for me. So, after your encouragement to go ahead, I’m presenting you with my second post. This one, as I said earlier, is on the ‘NUCLEAR WEAPONS STATES’. I have made this article brief and on the point one for you, and the points I have discussed are the most important events that one should know in the development of the nuke bombs by each country.

The G-5:-
So let me start off with my topic. As stated in my earlier post, there are five internationally accepted nuclear weapons states or the great five (G-5) the status which was conferred upon them by the NPT (Non-proliferation treaty). These are the nations that have obtained the nuclear weapons prior to 1968 or in other words the permanent members of the Security Council. The other nations that have conducted nuclear tests are India, South Africa, Pakistan and North Korea. Israel, though has not conducted any nuclear test, is estimated by analysts to hold something between 150-200 nuke warheads.
So, in this article, I’m not only discussing about the G-5 but also about the other nuke nations.

1) United States of America:-
Let me start off with the U.S., which itself assumes to be the guardian angel of the planet. Needless to say, it is this country that first tested a nuke bomb in its famous but secret ‘MANHATTAN PROJECT’, the project that paved the way for the death of 280,000 in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thanks to the brain child of the person of the 20th century, as per TIME magazine, Albert Einstein, America and virtually the world had a new and the most powerful agent of death. America developed its first nuclear weapon in co-operation with the U.K. and Canada. Its first test device was called as ‘TRINITY’. This country remains the only one to have used a nuke weapon against another till date. The U.S. started the Manhattan project in the year 1939 as a small one. But eventually during the course of the war, the project turned out to be serious, employing 130,000 people and costing a bulk $2 billion (which is $23 billion to today’s amount).
The bomb was tested near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The project even used the players of the Columbian football team to move uranium reserves to the project site. The project was under the control of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, under the administration of General Leslie R. Groves. The scientific research was directed by American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The three primary research and production sites of the project were the plutonium-production facility at what is now the Hanford Site, the uranium-enrichment facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the weapons research and design laboratory, now known as Los Alamos National Laboratory.
[Fat Man, the first nuke bomb used in war]
The program was accelerated further owing to the consequences of the letters from Einstein to the then President Roosevelt. By September 1942, the difficulties in conducting studies on nuclear weapons at universities scattered throughout the country indicated the need for a laboratory dedicated solely to that purpose. A greater need was the construction of industrial plants to produce uranium-235 and plutonium—the fissionable materials to be used in the weapons. Initially the project was titled "Development of Substitute Materials" as suggested by Gen. Brehon B. Somervell, but was objected due to the fact that it revealed too much.
Only because of the complexity of an implosion-style weapon, it was decided that, despite the waste of fissile material, an initial test would be required. The first nuclear test took place on July 16, 1945, under the supervision of Gen. Groves's deputy Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell. This test was dubbed by Oppenheimer as "Trinity". Thus took place the testing of the worst agent of death. Also, should it be mentioned, that it was the same U.S.A. that first tested the Hydrogen bomb and the Neutron bomb or the Cobalt bomb. So America nevertheless had made life on the planet, a seat on fire. The estimate of America’s nuke weapons is 5163 active warheads and 9138 total weapons.

2) Russia:-
This was the second country to test the nuke bomb. This country has a famous history of rising to newer heights every time it makes a fall. So did it and so is it doing even now. The first Soviet atomic test was First Lightning (Первая молния) conducted on August 29, 1949, at 07:00hrs (local) and was code-named by the Americans as Joe 1. It was a replica of the American Fat Man bomb whose design the Soviets knew from espionage. The bomb was tested at Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. The yield was 22 kiloton equivalents of TNT.
[First soviet nuke test, joe-1]
But Russia always goes steps ahead of the America. It tested The “Tsar Bomba”, which was the largest nuclear device ever detonated, and was a fusion bomb with a yield of ~50 megatons. It was detonated on October 30, 1961, and was capable of approximately 100 megatons, but was purposely reduced shortly before the launch. It was not a realistic weapon of war, but was part of the saber-rattling between the Soviet Union and United States during the Cold War. The explosion was hot enough to induce third degree burns at 100 km. This was tested at Site C on Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Sea. Russia went paces ahead when it created 10 secret cities for the nuclear projects during the cold war time. All the 10 cities have changed their names after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and many of them were closed.
 [Tsar Bomba, the most power nuclear device ever tested]
The Soviet intelligence went to considerable lengths to learn about US nuclear programs, and detailed information was provided to Igor Kurchatov, scientific director of the Soviet atomic project, in 1944 and early 1945. Klaus Fuchs, a soviet spy and an important physicist at Los Alamos, was by far the most valuable contributor of atomic information, who, confessed to British authorities in 1950 that he had passed significant information to the Soviet Union. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed in 1953 for espionage. Although Soviet weapons designers benefited from the American plutonium bomb design, they had to independently validate the material they were given in preparing their first bomb. The Soviet Union also had to invest substantial resources in developing the engineering and industrial infrastructure to translate a theoretical design into an actual weapon.
“I remember President Kennedy once stated... that the United States had the nuclear missile capacity to wipe out the Soviet Union two times over, while the Soviet Union had enough atomic weapons to wipe out the Unites States only once... When journalists asked me to comment... I said jokingly, "Yes, I know what Kennedy claims, and he's quite right. But I'm not complaining... We're satisfied to be able to finish off the United States first time round. Once is quite enough. What good does it do to annihilate a country twice? We're not a bloodthirsty people.” These were the famous quotes of Nikita Khrushchev, the then president of USSR, well worthy of mention here. Russia’s stockpile is estimated to be of 5830 active warheads and 16000 total warheads.

3) United Kingdom:-
This is a country which ruled nearly one-half of the Earth. It tested its first nuke bomb in October, 1952. This country, though acted like a world power before the American independence era, became only an ally to the more powerful America during the First World War and continues to be the same after that and even now. But proudly to claim this is the third country to test a nuke device. The nuke weapons program of the UK is based on its co-operation research program with America. The special relationship between the two states involved the exchange of classified scientific information and nuclear materials such as plutonium. The final stages of UK’s first test are reported to be done independently. It had a peak stock pile of 350 live nuke warheads, but now has decommissioned its WE.117 free falling nuke bombs in 1998 reducing its nuke stockpile to 200. The present UK’s nuke arsenal consists of four Vanguard class submarines based at HMNB Clyde, armed with up to 16 Trident missiles, which each carry nuclear warheads in up to 8 MIRVs, performing both strategic and sub-strategic deterrence roles.
[A Prototype of the first british bomb]
In October 1946, Attlee called a small cabinet sub-committee meeting to discuss building a gaseous diffusion plant to enrich uranium. The meeting was about to decide against it on grounds of cost, when [Ernest] Bevin arrived late and said "We've got to have this thing. I don't mind it for myself, but I don't want any other Foreign Secretary of this country to be talked at or to by the Secretary of State of the US as I have just been... We've got to have this thing over here, whatever it costs." The project was hidden under the name High Explosive Research or HER and was based initially at the Ministry of Supply's Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) at Fort Halstead in Kent, [22] but in 1950 moved to a new site at AWRE Aldermaston in Berkshire. The first UK weapon test, Operation Hurricane, was detonated below the frigate HMS Plym anchored in the Monte Bello Islands on 2 October 1952.
The detonation by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union of thermonuclear devices alarmed the UK government of Winston Churchill and a decision was made on 27 July 1954 to begin development of a thermonuclear bomb, making use of the more powerful nuclear fusion reaction rather than nuclear fission. There was little or no dissent in the House of Commons.
[Operation Hurricane, UK's first test]
The press, including those papers often most critical of the government, also supported the government's policy. The Manchester Guardian thought the decision sound, and believed that the government was right to build up a powerful deterrent, especially in the absence of a close partnership with the United States. The paper did, however, criticize the government for relying on developing bombers rather than missiles to carry the weapons. But then for many years UK was unsuccessful in two attempts and it stopped its attempts for sometime. Then it did a 3rd test that yielded 750 KT of TNT output.

4) France:-
This country, the worst enemy of the UK before the First World War, is the fourth country to have tested a nuclear bomb. French nuclear research began well before the Second World War. The instability of the 4th republic in France and the lack of fund deterred the French nuke plans initially. In the period between the two wars, nuclear physics were already at a very advanced stage in France, thanks to the work of Pierre and Marie Curie, Frederic Joliot-Curie and Irene Joliot-Curie. General de Gaulle had already been informed by various scientists of the progress made in American research in these matters and of its military implications. Thus, in autumn 1945, after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosions, he took the decision to create the Atomic Energy Commissariat (AEC). Lot of mishaps took place in the mean time and when general de Gaulle returned to power in 1958, he, at the meeting of the Defense Council on 17th June 1958, confirmed the date of the first French nuclear explosion and decided to accelerate the French nuclear program.
[A graph on French nuclear dependence]
The French nuke test was first conducted in 1960. In all, 41 tests in the atmosphere and 134 tests in boreholes in the atolls (from the edge of the atolls or in the central zone) were conducted between 1960 and 1991 on Mururoa and Fangataufa. Added to those in the Sahara, France had thus conducted a total of 192 tests up to 1992. France is the sole nuclear power having announced and started the dismantling of its fissile material production facilities.
• Since 1992, France no longer produces weapon-grade plutonium.
• At the end of 1997, it closed the Marcoule reprocessing* plant where this plutonium was produced.
• Since mid-1996, France has ceased all production of fissile material for nuclear weapons.
• The Pierre latté enrichment* plant, where highly enriched weapon-grade uranium was produced, has also been closed.
• The dismantling of these plants, decided in February 1996, is underway.
[French nuclear facility]

5) China:-
This country of Asia is the first country to test a nuke device in the continent. It started its nuclear aims in 1953. It had a huge assistance from Russia in the manufacturing of its nuke bomb. In 1951 Peking signed a secret agreement with Moscow through which China provided uranium ores in exchange for Soviet assistance in the nuclear field. In mid-October 1957 the Chinese and Soviets signed an agreement on new technology for national defense that included provision for additional Soviet nuclear assistance as well as the furnishing of some surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles. The USSR also agreed to supply a sample atomic bomb and to provide technical assistance in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The Soviets provided the Chinese with assistance in building a major gaseous diffusion facility for production of enriched uranium. Subsequently the Chinese accused Moscow of having abrogated this agreement in 1959, and having "refused to supply a simple atomic bomb and technical data concerning its manufacture."
Of the assistance provided, most significant to China's future strategic nuclear capability were an experimental nuclear reactor, facilities for processing uranium, a cyclotron, and some equipment for a gaseous diffusions plant. When Sino-Soviet relations cooled in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union withheld plans and data for an atomic bomb, abrogated the agreement on transferring defense technology, and began the withdrawal of Soviet advisers in 1960. Despite the termination of Soviet assistance, China committed itself to continue nuclear weapons development to break “the superpowers monopoly on nuclear weapons, to ensure Chinese security against the Soviet and United States threats, and to increase Chinese prestige and power internationally.”
[The first test bomb on its way to test area]
China made remarkable progress in the 1960s in developing nuclear weapons. In a thirty-two-month period, China successfully exploded its first atomic bomb (October 16, 1964), launched its first nuclear missile (October 25, 1966), and detonated its first hydrogen bomb (June 14, 1967). The first Chinese nuclear test was conducted at Lop Nor on 16 October 1964 (CHIC 1). It was a tower shot involving a fission device with a yield of 25 kilotons. Uranium 235 was used as the nuclear fuel, which indicates Beijing's choice of the path of creating high-yield nuclear weapons right away. The third nuclear test was conducted on 9 September 1966 using a Tu-16 bomber. In addition to uranium 235, this nuclear device, with a yield around 100 KT, this time contained lithium 6, which attested to China's readiness to test a thermonuclear explosion. CHIC 6, an airdrop test on 17 June 1967, was the first full-yield, two-stage thermonuclear test.
[The first bomb after explosion]
There is considerable uncertainly in published estimates of the size of the Chinese nuclear weapons stockpile. In the late 1980s it was generally held that China was the world's third-largest nuclear power, possessing a small but credible nuclear deterrent force of 225 to 300 nuclear weapons. Other estimates of the country's production capacities suggested then that by the end of 1970 China had fabricated around 200 nuclear weapons, a number which could have increased to 875 by 1980. Assuming an average annual production of 75 nuclear weapons during the 1980s, some estimates even suggested that by the mid-1990s the Chinese nuclear industry had produced around 2,000 nuclear weapons for ballistic missiles, bombers, artillery projectiles and landmines.

The Other Nuclear Forces:-

1) India:-
As early as June 26, 1946, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, soon to be India's first Prime Minister, announced that, “As long as the world is constituted as it is, every country will have to devise and use the latest devices for its protection. I have no doubt India will develop her scientific researches and I hope Indian scientists will use the atomic force for constructive purposes. But if India is threatened, she will inevitably try to defend herself by all means at her disposal.” India's nuclear weapons program was started at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Trombay. In the mid-1950s India acquired dual-use technologies under the "Atoms for Peace" non-proliferation program, which aimed to encourage the civil use of nuclear technologies in exchange for assurances that they would not be used for military purposes. There was little evidence in the 1950s that India had any interest in a nuclear weapons program. India obtained a Cirus (Canada-India Reactor-U.S) 40 MWt heavy-water-moderated research reactor from Canada and purchased from the U.S. 21 tons of heavy water required for its operation.
[Shakthi-I device being taken in to the test site]
The words said by Dr. Rajaramanna, the weapons program in-charge were, “There was never a discussion among us over whether we shouldn't make the bomb. “How to do it?” was more important. For us it was a matter of prestige that would justify our ancient past. The question of deterrence came much later. Also, as Indian scientists we were keen to show our Western counterparts, who thought little of us those days, that we too could do it."
As a nation India has always placed a premium on self-sufficiency. It is, in fact, the most self-sufficient large economy in the world and does not import any nuclear fuel. The acquisition of Cirus was specifically intended by India to provide herself with a weapons option and this reactor produced the plutonium used in India's first nuclear test in 1974; provided the design prototype for India's more powerful Dhruva plutonium production “research” reactor; and is directly responsible for producing nearly half of the weapons grade plutonium currently believed to be in India's stockpile.
“Can you develop an atomic bomb?” Nehru asked Dr. Bhabha. Dr. Bhabha replied “yes, we can, but it will take a year or two.” Nehru replied, “Well, don't do it until I tell you to.” Thereafter came in operation Smiling Buddha, where the Buddha finally smiled on May 18, 1974 using a plutonium device. The base for this was obtained from the reactor ‘PURNIMA’ (an approximate acronym for Plutonium Reactor for Neutron Investigation in Multiplying Assemblies).
India began work on a thermonuclear weapon in the 1980s. In 1989, William H. Webster, director of the CIA, testified before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee that "indicators that tell us India is interested in thermonuclear weapons capability." India was purifying lithium, producing tritium and separating lithium isotopes. India had also obtained pure beryllium metal from West Germany. After 24 years of not testing a nuke weapon, India resumed it with a series of nuclear explosions known as "Operation Shakti." Prime Minister Vajpayee authorized the tests on April 8, 1998, two days after the Ghauri missile test-firing in Pakistan.
[The research scientists on their way to the test site, Dr.Abdul Kalam is also seen in the photo]
On May 11, 1998, India tested three devices at the Pokhran underground testing site, followed by two more tests on May 13, 1998. The nuclear tests carried out at 3:45 pm on May 11th were claimed by the Indian government to be a simultaneous detonation of three different devices - a fission device with a yield of about 12 kilotons (KT), a thermonuclear device with a yield of about 43 KT, and a sub-kiloton device. The two tests carried out at 12:21 pm on May 13th were also detonated simultaneously with reported yields in the range of 0.2 to 0.6 KT.
[Operation smiling buddha's crater]
However, there is some controversy about these claims. Based on seismic data, U.S. government sources and independent experts estimated the yield of the so-called thermonuclear test in the range of 12-25 kilotons, as opposed to the 43-60 kiloton yield claimed by India. This lower yield raised skepticism about India's claims to have detonated a thermonuclear device. Some analysts say that the device could have been a boosted fission device. By late 1998 analysts at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory had concluded that the India had attempted to detonate a thermonuclear device, but that the second stage of the two-stage bomb failed to ignite as planned. But some sources say that the second test was conducted for analyzing India’s performance in thermonuclear devices and to use it for future computations.
Thus India became a nuclear power and was the 6th country to test a nuke bomb. India is estimated to have around 200 operational warheads up to date.

2) Pakistan:-
Shortly after the loss of East Pakistan in the 1971 war with India, Bhutto initiated the program with a meeting of physicists and engineers at Multan in January 1972. Through the late 1970s, Pakistan's program acquired sensitive uranium enrichment technology and expertise. The 1975 arrival of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan considerably advanced these efforts. Dr. Khan is a German-trained metallurgist who brought with him knowledge of gas centrifuge technologies that he had acquired through his position at the classified URENCO uranium enrichment plant in the Netherlands. Dr. Khan also reportedly brought with him stolen uranium enrichment technologies from Europe. He was put in charge of building, equipping and operating Pakistan's Kahuta facility, which was established in 1976. Under Khan's direction, Pakistan employed an extensive clandestine network in order to obtain the necessary materials and technology for its developing uranium enrichment capabilities.
On May 28, 1998 Pakistan announced that it had successfully conducted five nuclear tests. The Pakistani Atomic Energy Commission reported that the five nuclear tests conducted on May 28 generated a seismic signal of 5.0 on the Richter scale, with a total yield of up to 40 KT (equivalent TNT). Dr. A.Q. Khan claimed that one device was a boosted fission device and that the other four were sub-kiloton nuclear devices. On May 30, 1998 Pakistan tested one more nuclear warhead with a reported yield of 12 kilotons. The tests were conducted at Balochistan, bringing the total number of claimed tests to six. There are varied reports on the tests conducted by Pakistan. Indian sources have suggested that as few as two weapons were actually detonated, each with yields considerably lower than claimed by Pakistan. However, seismic data showed at least two and possibly a third, much smaller, test in the initial round of tests at the Ras Koh range. The single test on 30 May provided a clear seismic signal.
In the 1990s Pakistan began to pursue plutonium production capabilities. With Chinese assistance, Pakistan built the 40 MWt Khusab research reactor at Joharabad, and in April 1998, Pakistan announced that the reactor was operational. According to public statements made by US officials, this unsafe-guarded heavy water reactor generates an estimated 8-10 kilotons of weapons grade plutonium per year, which is enough for one to two nuclear weapons. The reactor could also produce tritium if it were loaded with lithium-6. According to J. Cirincione of Carnegie, Khusab's plutonium production capacity could allow Pakistan to develop lighter nuclear warheads that would be easier to deliver with a ballistic missile. Concerns have also been raised about Pakistan as an effective proliferant of nuclear materials and expertise. In November, 2002, shortly after North Korea admitted to pursuing a nuclear weapons program, the press reported allegations that Pakistan had provided assistance in the development of its uranium enrichment program in exchange for North Korean missile technologies.
According to a 2001 Department of Defense report, China has supplied Pakistan with nuclear materials and expertise and has provided critical assistance in the construction of Pakistan's nuclear facilities. China also provided technical and material support in the completion of the Chasma nuclear power reactor and plutonium reprocessing facility, which was built in the mid 1990s. The project had been initiated as a cooperative program with France, but Pakistan's failure to sign the NPT and unwillingness to accept IAEA safeguards on its entire nuclear program caused France to terminate assistance. Pakistan remains the 8th country to have tested a nuclear weapon. Pakistan’s nuke arsenal, as estimated by trustful sources, is estimated to be around 50-60 live war heads.

3) South Africa:-
South Africa’s quest for a nuclear deterrent began with research into peaceful nuclear explosives (PNEs) in 1969. Although Pretoria initially would not confirm it was developing, or possessed, nuclear weapons, it had large natural deposits of uranium, as well as uranium enrichment facilities and the necessary technological infrastructure. In addition, until the late 1980s South Africa had the deeply entrenched fear of its adversaries and the insecurity about its borders that were important incentives in other nations' nuclear programs. South Africa developed a complete nuclear fuel cycle, including advanced waste management techniques. South Africa operates two nuclear power reactors (built by the French, but based on a Westinghouse design) at Koeberg near Cape Town.
South Africa also acquired the technology to build nuclear weapons. South Africa developed at least six nuclear warheads, which it later acknowledged, along with a variety of missiles and other conventional weapons. These projects were undertaken with some cooperation from Israel -- another technologically advanced, militarily powerful, nuclear-capable nation surrounded by hostile neighbors. Beginning in 1975 two test shafts over 250 meters deep for conducting nuclear tests were drilled at the Vastrap military base in the Kalahari Desert. A Soviet surveillance satellite detected these test preparations in August 1977, and the Soviets notified the US of their discovery. South Africa was forced to cancel the tests in the face of diplomatic pressure from America, the Soviet Union, and France.
In 1987 President Botha announced that South Africa was considering signing the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and would begin discussions with other countries toward that end. In September 1990, Pretoria agreed to sign the NPT, but only "in the context of an equal commitment by other states in the Southern African region." After intensive diplomatic efforts, especially by the United States and the Soviet Union, Tanzania and Zambia agreed to sign the treaty. South Africa signed the NPT on 10 July 1991. In addition, the government banned any further development, manufacture, marketing, import, or export of nuclear weapons or explosives, as required by the NPT. In March 1993 President de Klerk declared that South Africa had previously developed a limited nuclear capability which had been dismantled and destroyed before South Africa acceded to the NPT. The IAEA sent experts to visit the facilities involved in the abandoned program and to review historical data. It found no indication casting doubt on South Africa's statement that all the highly enriched uranium for weapons had been reported in its initial declaration. Also it has found no indication to suggest that there remain any sensitive components of the nuclear weapons program which have not been either rendered useless or converted to commercial non-nuclear applications or peaceful nuclear usage. The IAEA declared it had completed its inspection in late 1994 and that South Africa's nuclear weapons facilities had been dismantled. Thus we can say that South Africa tested its nuke weapons before Pakistan and thus is the seventh country to do so.

4) North Korea:-
North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosive test on October 16, 2006. The estimated yield of the test was less than one kiloton. In October 2002, North Korean officials acknowledged the existence of a clandestine program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons that is in violation of the Agreed Framework and other agreements. In a roundtable discussion with the United States and China in Beijing on April 24, 2003, North Korean officials admitted for the first time that they possessed nuclear weapons. Furthermore, North Korean officials claim to have reprocessed spent fuel rods and have threatened to begin exporting nuclear materials unless the United States agrees to one-on-one talks with North Korea.
On October 9, 2006, North Korea announced it had conducted a nuclear test. The USGS reported a magnitude of 4.2 on the Richter scale with a location at 41.29N 129.09E +/- 8.1 km. Initial speculations about the yield ranged from less than 1 Kt up to 15 Kt. On October 16, 2006, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced that analysis of air-samples conducted on October 11 had confirmed that the event had been an underground nuclear explosion near P'unggye on October 9, 2006. DNI concluded that the “explosion yield was less than a kiloton.”
Though nothing is said about the North Korean nuke arsenal, there are some reliable sources on the estimates of the amount of plutonium the country can extract. South Korean, Japanese, and Russian intelligence estimates of the amount of plutonium separated, for example, are reported to be higher -- 7 to 22 kilograms, 16 to 24 kilograms, and 20 kilograms, respectively -- than the reported US estimate of about 12 kilograms. At least two of the estimates are said to be based on the assumption that North Korea removed fuel rods from the 5-MW(e) reactor and subsequently reprocessed the fuel during slowdowns in the reactor's operations in 1990 and 1991. The variations in the estimates about the number of weapons that could be produced from the material depend on a variety of factors, including assumptions about North Korea's reprocessing capabilities: advanced technology yields more material and the amount of plutonium it takes to make a nuclear weapon. Until January 1994, the Department of Energy (DOE) estimated that 8 kilograms would be needed to make a small nuclear weapon. Thus, the United States' estimate of 12 kilograms could result in one to two bombs. In January 1994, however, DOE reduced the estimate of the amount of plutonium needed to 4 kilograms--enough to make up to three bombs if the US estimate is used and up to six bombs if the other estimates are used. So North Korea remains the ninth country to have tested a nuke bomb. But recent talks between North Korea and America had yielded fruitful results. North Korea had agreed to dismantle its nuke arsenal in exchange for oil and other fossil fuels.

5) Israel:-
Israel's involvement with nuclear technology literally extends back to the founding of the country in 1948. A host of talented scientists immigrated to Palestine during the thirties and forties, particularly one Ernst David Bergmann - later the director of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission and the founder of Israel's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The Weizmann Institute of Science actively supported nuclear research by 1949, with Bergmann heading its chemistry division. Also in 1949, Francis Perrin - French nuclear physicist, atomic energy commissioner, and personal friend of Bergmann's - visited the Weizmann Institute, after which Israeli scientists were invited to the newly established French nuclear research facility at Saclay. A joint research effort was subsequently set up between the two nations.
On 7 November 1956, a secret meeting was held between foreign minister Golda Meir, Peres, and French foreign and defense ministers Mssrs. Christian Pineau and Maurice Bourges-Manoury. The French officials were deeply chagrined by France's failure to support its ally in the operation, and the Israelis were very concerned about the Soviet threat. In this meeting the initial understanding about a research reactor may have been substantially modified, and Peres seems to have secured an agreement to assist Israel in developing a nuclear deterrent. After some further months of negotiation, the initial agreement for assistance took the form of an 18 MW (thermal) research reactor of the EL-3 type, along with plutonium separation technology. At some point this was officially upgraded to 24 MW, but the actual specifications issued to engineers provided for core cooling ducts sufficient for up to three times this power level, along with a plutonium plant of similar capacity. How this upgrade came about remains unknown.
Israel with the help of France built a reactor in DIMONA in southern Israel near Beersheba. Israel used a variety of subterfuges to explain away the activity at Dimona - calling it a "manganese plant" among other things. US intelligence became aware of the project before the end of 1958, took picture of the project from U-2 spy planes, and identified the site as a probable reactor complex. The concentration of Frenchmen was certainly impossible to hide. On 2 December 1960, before Israel could make the announcement, the US State Department issued a determination that Israel had a secret nuclear installation. By 16 December this became public knowledge with its appearance in the New York Times. On 21 December Ben Gurion announced that Israel was building a 24 MW reactor "for peaceful purposes". In 1962 the Dimona reactor went critical, and the French resumed work on the plutonium plant, believed to have been completed in 1964 or 1965.
In 1962 the Dimona reactor went critical, and the French resumed work on the plutonium plant, believed to have been completed in 1964 or 1965. The acquisition of this reactor and related technologies was clearly intended for military purposes from the outset (not "dual use") as the reactor has no other function. The security at Dimona (officially the Negev Nuclear Research Center) is stringent: an Israeli AF Mirage was actually shot down in 1967 for straying into Dimona's airspace. There is little doubt then, that some time in the late sixties Israel became the sixth nation to manufacture nuclear weapons. It is generally believed that the first extraction of plutonium occurred in 1965, and that enough plutonium was on hand for one weapon during the Six Day War in 1967 although whether a prototype weapon actually existed or not is unknown. Hersh relates that Moshe Dayan gave the go ahead for starting weapon production in early 1968, which is when the plutonium separation plant presumably went into full operation. After this Israel began producing three to five bombs a year.
Sources agree that Israel went on full scale nuclear alert again on the first day of Desert Storm, 18 January 1991, when 7 Scud missiles were fired against the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa by Iraq (only 2 actually hit Tel Aviv and 1 hit Haifa). This alert apparently lasted for the duration of the war (43 days). There were threats of retaliation by the Israeli government, that if the Iraqis used chemical warheads Israel would launch a nuclear strike.

Conclusion:-
Thank you, for reading this article. I accept that this one is quiet big. But I assure you that the points I have quoted in this post are all essentials. My opinion on this post will be posted in a few days. Please use the comments section to give me your invaluable comments.