nuclear (Page 9)

Worms that used to reproduce asexually are now having sex. Why should we care? These are worms that were contaminated by radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, and they can reproduce more efficiently this way. Ukrainian scientists think they’ve changed their sexual behavior in order to increase their chances of survival. This shows that at least some forms of life can adapt to radioactivity, so a nuclear war might wipe out mankind, but life would still survive.
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A leaked Pentagon document reveals the U.S. may produce a new kind of smaller nuclear weapon, designed for use in conventional warfare. This would mean abandoning global arms treaties. These weapons have a destructive power of less than five kilotons, and could penetrate an underground bunker before detonating. The Hiroshima bomb dropped in 1945 had a yield of about 15 kilotons, and standard nuclear weapons now have yields of hundreds of kilotons.
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In 1984, Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka wrote ?WarDay,? a novel set in the near future about the outcome of a limited nuclear war. At the time, the Reagan administration was talking about the survivability of this type of warfare. Whitley and Jim pointed out that yes, we would survive, but there would be a terribly high price to pay.
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Radioactive fallout from Cold War nuclear testing exposed virtually everyone in the United States to potentially dangerous levels of radiation and contributed to about 11,000 cancer deaths, according to a study by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The radioactive exposure contributed to a minimum of 22,000 U.S. cancer cases.
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