https://www.bbc.com/news/world-54680893






Campaigners have hailed a "new chapter" after a key step by the United Nations towards banning nuclear arms.

Honduras has become the 50th country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons so it will now come into force in 90 days time.

But what it will actually achieve remains in doubt because the five recognised nuclear powers have not signed the accord.

Supporters hope it will nevertheless have a deterrent effect.
What's in the treaty?

The accord was approved by 122 countries at the UN General Assembly in 2017 but needed to be ratified by at least 50 before being enacted.

It declares that those countries that ratify it must "never under any circumstances develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices".

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The treaty outlaws the use or threat to use nuclear arms, and bars signatories from allowing "any stationing, installation or deployment of any nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices" on their territory.
What has the reaction been?

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) described the 50th ratification as heralding "a new chapter for nuclear disarmament".

Beatrice Fihn, the head of Ican, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, said: "Decades of activism have achieved what many said was impossible: nuclear weapons are banned."

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, said: "Today is a victory for humanity, and a promise of a safer future."

A statement from the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, described the move as "a meaningful commitment towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons, which is the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations".

There has been no immediate reaction from the five main nuclear powers - the US, Russia, China, the UK and France. But the US and the UK made clear their opposition in 2017.


What is being done to eliminate them?

The Non-Proliferation Treaty, backed by 190 countries in 1970, commits countries which signed up, including the US, Russia, France the UK and China, to reducing their stockpiles and bars others from acquiring nuclear weapons.

India, Pakistan and Israel did not sign up and North Korea left in 2003. The US, Russia and the UK have been reducing their inventories.

Russia and the US are trying to extend their last remaining nuclear arms agreement which is due to expire in February.

New Start, signed in 2010, limits the number of long-range nuclear warheads each can possess to 1,550.

The US recently pulled out of another treaty, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty signed during the Cold War, after accusing Russia of violating it.

Jasin wrote on Oct 26^th, 2020 at 7:52am:


There have already been 520 atmospheric nuclear explosions.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_weapons_tests

There have been 2,121 tests done since the first in July of 1945, involving 2,476 nuclear devices. As of 1993, worldwide, 520 atmospheric nuclear explosions (including 8 underwater) have been conducted with a total yield of 545 megaton (Mt): 217 Mt from pure fission and 328 Mt from bombs using fusion, while the estimated number of underground nuclear tests conducted in the period from 1957 to 1992 is 1,352 explosions with a total yield of 90 Mt.[1]