What's happening?

Picture this. One of either the USAThe United States of America is a country in North America. It has a population of 329 million. or RussiaThe largest country in the world by area. It has a population of 144 million people. launches a nuclear weaponA bomb or other weapon that uses nuclear energy to cause a big explosion. towards its enemy. The other side spots it and fires back.

Two huge cities are struck. It would be a disaster for the entire world.

It is a very scary idea. This is why so many people want to talk about it now, to try and stop it from happening.

This week, the USA told its friends in Europe that Russia is making a space-based nuclear missile which could stop America's satellitesA satellite is a small object that orbits, or revolves around, a larger object in space. from working. This would seriously hurt the US army.

Experts think there are about 12,500 nuclear warheadsThe device containing nuclear materials, fitted onto a missile, torpedo or bomb. in the world. Most of them are owned by either Russia or the USA.

Find out more

Some say that we will never see peace until we get rid of all nuclear weapons. Only a short time ago, nobody could have dreamed of a weapon that is so powerful. It also costs nations billions of pounds a year to keep them - money which could be spent on other things.

But for others, our nuclear power lies not in the weapons themselves, but in our ability to make them. Now that every country in the world has that knowledge, it can never be taken back.

Should all nukes be destroyed?

Yes! They cost a lot of money and are very, very dangerous. If we do not have them, we cannot use them to hurt the world and the people that live on it.

No! The problem is that we cannot force everybody else to give up nuclear weapons too. The only option is to keep them so that every country knows it cannot launch nuclear weapons at other countries without risking a nuclear weapon being launched at their own country.