I don't really see what Russia or the US has to gain from designing new kinds of nuclear weapons. They already have the capability to wipe out whatever they're aiming at.
There was once a wide consensus to not continue with this arms race. But unfortunately it broke down.
You can't have it both ways. Either MAD works, and anyone working on and building ICBM defenses is a dangerous lunatic, and a threat to world peace...
Or MAD doesn't work, and anyone controlling thousands of nuclear weapons is a dangerous lunatic and a threat to world peace.
We either need to stop trying to break MAD, or disarm. What we do not need, is to build anti-ICBM installations. I do not understand why this is not ever brought up in public discourse. Do people think that the risk of nuclear Armageddon just went away with the Cold War?
I’m pretty sure the answer is “yes.” I’m baffled as to why, but that seems to be the case.
I’m also pretty sure that MAD is a very risky thing, and we really can’t count on it long term. The fact that we’ve made it many decades without a nuclear war indicates that the probability is low, but not necessarily low enough.
The problem is, what do you do about it? I agree that we (as in humanity) need to disarm, but it’s not going to happen. It’s a classic prisoners’ dilemma: we’re best off if nobody has nukes, but then someone can gain a huge advantage by acquiring them, and then everybody else is better off if they also acquire them. (And remember that game theory was created to analyze MAD!)
If MAD isn’t fully effective and disarmament isn’t going to happen, then building defenses makes sense.
Set a realistic goal.
Total disarmament is unrealistic. But if the nuclear arsenals of the US and Russia could be brought down to hundreds, instead of thousands of weapons, we'd all be much better off.
We can make that happen, by demanding that our government makes the following things a priority:
1. Some small, unilateral, token-of-good-faith reduction in arms stockpiles.
2. Combined with making more serious, tit-for-tat arms reduction a diplomatic goal.
This isn't some novel idea. We have done this during the Cold war. We just need to do it, again.
If MAD is not fully effective, ballistic missile defense makes it even less effective (Because it makes your opponent more afraid of you.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Ballistic_Missile_Treaty
Summary: It was okay for each side to have a limited ABM capability but not an extensive one.
Treaty was exited by USA side in 2002 and the stated reason was that ABM-like defense would be needed against "rogue states".
This sort of thing isn't just for Russia to deter the United States. China is their best "frenemy" and this sort of thing helps contain China as well.
That said, the Russians in particular get very nervous about the US' missile defense systems and research; after all, if one party has an effective ICBM detection system, the other party's nukes are no longer as threatening and a counterattack may follow.
ROM: I'm working as fast as I can, brother, but there must be some kind of interference disrupting our translators.
QUARK: What kind of interference?
ROM: I'm not sure. Could be solar flares, or maybe ionic interference. Or I suppose it could be beta radiation, but that's only produced by nuclear fission.
QUARK: Don't be an idiot. Nuclear fission doesn't happen within planetary atmospheres.
NOG: It does here. In the twentieth century humans used crude nuclear reactors as weapons. They called them atom bombs. They used to blow them up all the time.
QUARK: They irradiated their own planet?!
ROM: If Nog says so, they did. He knows all about Earth history.
QUARK: You'd better fix those translators fast. The sooner we start talking to these savages, the better off we'll be.
Either powered by actual expensive artificial isotopes with enough activity to power an engine, OR they actually broke the ban and had it running on pu239 (which would also make its fuel reserve a nice yield booster)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reactor
"A nuclear reactor, formerly known as an atomic pile, is a device used to initiate and control a self-sustained nuclear chain reaction."
Nuclear engine is a device used to initate and control a self-sustained nuclear chain reaction.
This is in contrast to nuclear bomb which initiates but does not control the chain reaction. Once the reaction is started nothing else can be done with it (ie. there is no control involved other than setting up initial parameters).