SCIENCE TIMES: "The Hidden Travels of The Bomb," by William J. Broad, New York Times, 9 December 2008.
Fascinating chart showing how the bomb travels from the U.S. (1945) to USSR (1949) and UK/Canada (1952) and France (1960) an then onto China (1964) and Israel (1967) and India (1974). Then we see Pakistan (1990) and North Korea (2006).
That gives us 9 nuclear powers after 61 years. Clearly, proliferation is dangerously "out of control"!!!!
Next up are Iran, along with--potentially--Syria, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and arguably Turkey. Of those, I see only Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey as serious contenders.
They would take us up to 12 nuclear powers.
Countries that got nukes or very close and then abandoned the programs include Belarus, Ukraine, Kazazkstan, Sweden, South Africa, Iraq, Switzerland, Taiwan, Argentina, Brazil and Libya. I see North Korea joining their ranks soon enough.
We created (through spies we did not catch or technology we chose to share) the first wave of nuclear powers. France and China created the second wave. Pakistan and North Korea create the future ones.
Since I was a kid, I have heard that we're within a few years of 30-to-40 nuclear states, meaning states with nuclear weapon arsenals.
Still waiting on that one.
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