English PSSSB Practice 17

In 1945, United States scientists who worked on the first nuclear weapons (two were used against Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki) set up an organization to print The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which warned of the dangers of nuclear weapons. As the Soviet Union began to develop such weapons in response, the Bulletin began to feature a Doomsday Clock, which set 12 midnight as doomsday, and a minute hand that signaled in a graphic way the danger of nuclear annihilation by how close it was to midnight. Over the decades the minute hand has moved closer or further away from midnight as the situation of the world changed. Recently, it has moved to one minute and 40 seconds, the closest ever. The Bulletin explained that there were now two main dangers. One was the increased likelihood of the use of nuclear weapons due to technological advances, if one could use that word to describe such a negative development. The other was the danger of massive destruction due to climate change. The Obama administration, with bipartisan approval, set aside 10 trillion dollars over ten years to "modernize" the American nuclear arsenal. This set off a renewal of the nuclear arms race with the other major nuclear power, Russia. This has now been accelerated by the withdrawal of the U.S. from talks with Russia to establish a new nuclear equilibrium. Of course, exactly what "modernization" has been underway is secret. One aspect that has become known is the development of supersonic ICBMs that would be harder for defenses to destroy, as well as reduce the time from launch to reaching the target. The danger of accidental launching of atomic missiles would be increased, as it may mistakenly appear on radar, etc. that missiles that are harder to destroy were quickly approaching, as well as reducing the time to verify whether the apparent attack was real or not, and an accidental retaliatory attack could be ordered.