There are weapons of mass destruction other than the different kinds of nuclear warheads. Anthrax was a threat to our country not more than one year ago, and Smallpox is a current threat talked about quite often. Only a few countries possess Anthrax, but Iraq, North Korea, Russia, France, and the United States all possess Smallpox. The International Terrorist Group “al Qaida” is also thought to possess the deadly disease according to the State Department (Staff A6). An outbreak of Smallpox would bring the disease back from over 25 years of eradication, and could cause the death of thousands of people (McEnery B1).

Nuclear weapons pose a great threat to the world, by not only third-world countries, but also terrorist organizations using “Dirty Bombs”. Dirty bombs are conventional explosives, however encase

There are over seventy-five top-secret presidential nuclear bunkers in which the President and some select few can go to during and after a nuclear war (“50 Facts” 3). On September 11, 2001, George W. Bush and others went to one of these facilities in Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska (Gibbs 33). Also until 1988, there was over $2,000,000,000 stored by the Federal Reserve in a facility for use after a nuclear war (“50 Facts” 3). There are many other precautions the United States Government takes to protect the country from nuclear war.

The history of nuclear warfare goes back hundreds of years. Uranium was discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth in the mineral pitchblende, and it was named after the planet Uranus. Pitchblende was only known about eight year’s prior to the discovery of Uranium. Uranium has a high density. The heaviest of all naturally occurring elements; Uranium is 18.7 times as dense as water, making it a common material in the keels of yachts and as counterweights in aircraft rudders and elevators. Also, it is great for radiation or heat shielding, as its melting point is 1132 degrees Celsius (“WNA: What is Uranium?” 1).

There are countries attempting to obtain full nuclear warheads for use against other countries, and in one case against it’s own people. Iran, North Korea, Iraq, India, Pakistan, and Israel all have nuclear warheads. India, Pakistan, and Israel are commonly called the “de facto” states, while India and Pakistan conduct nuclear tests, Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear weapons of their own, despite not declaring any. Iran and Iraq both posses nuclear material and may be close to developing nuclear warheads (“Declared Nuclear Powers” 1).

Today both the Unites States and Russia have just about the same amount of active nuclear warheads, around 10,000. There are nuclear-arms treaties between the two superpowers, attempting to erase nuclear weapons from the weapon stockpile of countries worldwide. So many countries, and now terrorist organizations, now or soon will have nuclear weapons; some believe it could bring our world to an end. But once a country abolishes the weapons, their national security would be put at risk (“Nuclear Powers” 1).

Nuclear bombs are not the only kind of nuclear weapons; the biggest threat comes from terrorists, and their “dirty bombs”. Dirty Bombs are not dropped out of an airplane; they are not launched from a missile site. They are conventional bombs; such as those used in car bombings, bus bombings, etc. The difference between conventional bombs, and dirty bombs is that at the core of dirty bombs is compacted radioactive nuclear material, which expands quickly after the conventional TNT explosion (“NRC: Fact Sheet” 1).

Weapons scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are studying the energy expelled when two halves of a neptunium sphere gets closer together over a four-day period. Americium, another nuclear waste product, was investigated by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1999, along with neptunium. The IAEA found it could also serve as a weapons material, however it was viewed as less of a threat (Vergano 1).

Nuclear research has benefited mankind in many ways. But today, the nuclear industry faces huge, very complex issues. The futur

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