Glossary of Terms
| Aldermaston | AWE Aldermaston
is the headquarters of AWE's operations. It
is a factory near Reading, England where the Trident warheads are
built.
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| Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty | The Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty
- was signed by the US and Soviet Union in 1972. In it they agreed
to restrict anti ballistic systems. It allowed
the US and Soviet Union to set up one area each protected against
ABM.
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| Anti ballistic systems | Anti-ballistic systems
(ABM) consist of rockets and radar sets, designed to shoot down missiles.
In practice it has proved impossible to design an ABM system that
works. It has now been admitted that the US Patriot missiles fired
at Iraqi Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf War almost always missed.
However, there has always been the fear that if one of the countries
with nuclear weapons did have an effective ABM system, it might feel
that it was safe to use its own weapons, knowing that it couldn't
be hit in return. So any attempts to set up an ABM system have always
been seen as hostile rather than simply defensive.
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| Atom bomb | ('A' bomb) An extremely
powerful bomb depending on rapid release of atomic energy. Works
by fission of plutonium
or uranium. (see also Hydrogen bomb)
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| AWE | The Atomic Weapons Establishment
(AWE) in Berkshire, England, designs, manufactures and assembles
Trident warheads. It also provides support, and decommissions and
disposes of the old warheads. It is made up of AWE Aldermaston
and AWE Burghfield.
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| Burghfield | AWE Burgfield
is seven miles east of Aldermaston. It is responsible for the final
assembly of warheads, their in-service maintenance and their eventual
decommissioning.
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| Chernobyl | The town in the Ukraine in which a nuclear
reactor burst in 1986, releasing radioactive material which continues
to poison large areas of Belarus (see Environmental
Issues page).
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| CND | Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (see
History of CND page).
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| Cold War | Period between 1945 and 1990. During this
time the USA and the USSR confronted each other with arms.
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| Coulport | A naval base on Loch
Long, Firth of Clyde, Scotland, where nuclear bombs are stored
and loaded into Trident missiles. (see also
Faslane)
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| Deploy | To spread out ready for use. To make a
weapons system operational.
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| Deterrence | The theory that war is deterred because
each side knows that the other possesses large numbers of nuclear
weapons and thus understands the dire consequences of initiating a
nuclear exchange.
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| Deuterium | Heavy hydrogen,
the hydrogen isotope of atomic mass. It is used in nuclear bombs.
(see also Tritium)
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| Disarmament | The reduction, limitation or complete
abandonment of a nation's armed forces and military equipment (nuclear
disarmament - abandonment of nuclear weapons).
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| European Court | The Court that decides on issues affecting
individuals, groups, and states within the European Union.
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| Fall-out | Radioactive dust from a nuclear explosion.
This is caused by the vast quantity of dirt and debris that is gouged
out of the ground when a bomb hits. It is sucked up into the fireball
and later deposited as fall-out.
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| Faslane | Naval Base on the Gareloch,
Firth of Clyde where the Trident submarines
are kept. (see also Coulport)
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| Fission | The breaking up
of a heavy atom into two or more lighter atoms of about equal mass,
with vast release of energy. (See Atom bomb)
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| Fusion | When two nuclei of
a light element, such as the hydrogen isotope deuterium,
fuse together to form a nucleus of a heavier atom, with a great release
of energy. (see Hydrogen bomb)
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| General Assembly | The gathering for all members of the United
Nations.
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| Genocide | Mass murder of a racial, national or religious
group.
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| Half-life | Amount of time
it takes for something to become half as radioactive as it was to
begin with (e.g. Iodine-131's half life is 8.05 days. Uranium-235's
half life is 710 million years).
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| Hiroshima | The Japanese city
that was atom-bombed at 8.15am on 6th August 1945. About 60,000-70,000
people were killed by the Hiroshima bombing. The bomb was named 'Little
Boy'. By the end of December 1945, the total number of people who
had died in the blast and later from radiation and other after-effects
had reached 140,000.(see also Nagasaki)
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| Hydrogen Bomb | ('H' Bomb) A highly
destructive bomb that works by the nuclear fusion
of deuterium. (See also Atom bomb)
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| International Court of Justice (World Court) | Considers disputes between states. Has
condemned nuclear weapons.
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| Kiloton | A nuclear explosive force equal to 1,000
tons of conventional high explosives (e.g. TNT).
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| MAD | Mutual Assured Destruction.
Each side completely destroys the other in an exchange of nuclear
weapons.
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| NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. An
alliance which was formed to confront the USSR and continued after
its demise. Nineteen countries are members including US, UK, France,
Germany, Italy and Greece. Plans are afoot to include countries bordering
on Russia.
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| Nagasaki | The Japanese city
atom-bombed at 7.50am on 9th August 1945. About 40,000 people died
in the initial blast from the bomb, which was called 'Fat Man'.(see
also Hiroshima)
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| Non-Proliferation Treaty | The Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was opened for
signatures in 1968 and entered into force in 1970. 188 states have
joined the Treaty and declared their intention to "achieve at the
earliest possible date the cessation of the nuclear arms race and
undertake effective measures in the direction of nuclear disarmament". The Treaty says that only those countries which already have nuclear weapons may have them (that is the US, Russia, the UK, France and China). (see also Proliferation)
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| Nuclear Bomb | A bomb that explodes using nuclear fusion
(hydrogen bombs) or fission (atom bombs).
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| Nuclear Convoy | A military convoy of road vehicles carrying
nuclear weapons, such as the one which travels from Burghfield
to Coulport carrying Trident
bombs.
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| Nuclear power | Electricity generated from nuclear processes.
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| Nuclear waste | The waste left when nuclear processes
are completed. Some kinds of waste will remain radioactive for tens
of thousands of years.
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| Nuclear reactor | Part of a nuclear power station where
nuclear energy is converted.
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| Nuclear testing | The first nuclear test was carried out
on 16 July 1945 when the United States exploded the first nuclear
bomb in New Mexico. The following is an extract from the Greenpeace
website. "Nuclear weapon test explosions have been carried out in the atmosphere, underground, and underwater. They have occurred on top of towers, onboard barges, suspended from balloons, on the earth's surface, deep underwater, deep underground and in horizontal tunnels bored into the sides of mountains. Nuclear bombs also have been dropped by aircraft and fired by rockets up to 200 miles into the atmosphere. Wherever nuclear weapons testing has occurred there have been environmental problems. Large areas of land are contaminated as a result of atmospheric tests and the long-term consequences of underground nuclear testing are unknown. Fallout from the peak years of atmospheric nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s, contaminated food, milk and water around the globe." (see also Test Ban Treaty)
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| Nucleus | The central part of an atom.
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| Plutonium | An artificially
produced radioactive element. It is used in nuclear bombs.
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| Proliferation | The spread
of nuclear weapons to countries without them and their development
within countries which have them. (see also Non-Proliferation
Treaty)
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| Radiation | Electromagnetic waves (gamma rays and
X-rays) and particles (alpha particles, beta particles, neutrons)
produced by nuclear fission and fusion
processes.
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| Radioactivity | Spontaneous decay or disintegration of
unstable atomic nuclei accompanied by the emission of charged particles
and gamma rays.
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| Reprocessing plant | The building where the chemical procedure
of separating plutonium or fissionable uranium from spent nuclear
fuel is carried out. |
| Rosyth | Graveyard of decommissioned submarines.
Near Falkirk in Scotland.
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| SALT | Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. Negotiations
between the US and Russia which are leading to a reduction of nuclear
weapons.
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| Sanction | Action intended to persuade a country
to do as other countries want.
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| Summit | Meeting between the Great Powers.
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| Test Ban Treaty | The Test Ban Treaty
is an agreement to stop testing nuclear weapons.
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| Treaty | Formal agreement between States.
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| Trident | American/British
missile system (see Trident section).
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| Tritium | Isotope of hydrogen
used in nuclear bombs. (see also Deuterium)
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| Unilateral Disarmament | Disarmament undertaken by one country
without guarantees that other countries will also disarm.
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| United Nations | International organisation formed after
World War II to preserve peace.
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| Uranium | A metallic element
used in nuclear bombs, with many radioactive and unstable istopes.
Enriched uranium is uranium that has an increased content of uranium 235. |
| Warhead | The part of a missile containing the bomb.
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