Nuclear war represents one of the gravest threats on the world today, ever since the United States of America made the first atomic bomb during the Second World War under the Manhattan Project, the world has been in shackles made of guilt, fear and the question, should humans even be allowed to possess weapons of mass destruction like these? Limiting and reducing these kinds of weapons is absolutely necessary. Originally the formation of The Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty (“NPT”) was designed for the same with the eventual aim of preventing the spread of Nuclear weapons while emphasizing the overarching goal of reduction in the further development of weapons technology, to foster the peaceful uses of Nuclear Energy and to further the goal of disarmament. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (“CTBT”) was also made to ban any and all Nuclear Explosions. But now these archaic treaties are no longer in sync with the realities of the present day and require significant revision.
The NPT shows a rather contradictory character with regards to nuclear research facilities in article 3. It is imperative to look at both their important contributions to energy and the associated hazards. There have been 99 nuclear energy-related accidents reported in history, with major incidents like the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters leaving long-lasting harm in their respective regions. Significant casualties were caused by these disasters, which emitted around 6000 PBq of radioactive material. As demonstrated by the Chernobyl disaster, where a breakdown during a test might have been avoided with responsible stewardship, many mishaps are caused by poor maintenance inspections and inadequate supervision. The NPT's glaring shortcoming is its disregard for human mistakes in nuclear expeditions.
Tackling the problem stated above the IAEA should expand its jurisdiction to look after and maintain a strict track record of all the Nuclear power plants in the world. It shall devise systems to conduct usual system checks to ensure any such malfunction does not occur in the future daily checks on Nuclear Power Plants shall be conducted and aid to gray listed countries should be provided for disaster management related to Nuclear accidents upon IAEA’s discretion. Such detailed oversight can also prevent future disputative scenarios like the Iran Nuclear Deal.
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster can also be looked at with interest, it shows how natural calamities can potentially cause nuclear meltdowns. In this case, a 43 feet tsunami hit the Japanese coast, it towered over the 19 foot seawall which was built to mitigate such kind of an adversity. The tsunami was initially caused due to a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck on 11th March, 2011. These kinds of natural adversities are more or less impossible to mitigate. Legislature should be formed to conduct extensive geographical checks before a nuclear plant is set up. This raises the question of geographic inequality with regards to nuclear power. For example, Small Island States cannot afford to take the risk of building nuclear reactors due to their fragile relation with tsunamis and natural disasters. This problem has further aggregated due to rising sea levels. This leads to inequality in terms of energy production. A country with enough resources cannot become independent due to its varied geography, this can be tackled by establishing international Nuclear energy production stations through which energy is produced and distributed equitably, these can be established under the IAEA further expanding its jurisdiction and duties over nuclear energy.
Uncovered by signed accords, dirty bombs are another outcome of nuclear research. Combining conventional explosives with any type of radioactive material is a weapon known as a radiological dispersion device. They are thought to be utilized by a number of terrorist groups as a technique of low-radius physical and physiological devastation. What is referred to as a mass disruption bomb is called a dirty bomb. In certain places, this causes turmoil and terror.
As international peace deteriorate it is crucial to rectify these archaic treaties and bring in new legislature to save us from an eventual Dooms Day.
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