Nuclear Weapons
Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction that use nuclear energy to cause huge explosions.
The first and only time nuclear weapons were used for warfare was in WWII when the USA dropped two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The explosions killed at least 140,000 civilians, 10,000 soldiers and 20 Allied prisoners of war.
In total, the bombs dropped on Japan were equivalent to 40,000 tonnes of TNT. The largest publically known nuclear bomb ever tested, the Tsar Bomba, was equivalent to 5,000,000 tonnes of TNT, or over 300 Hiroshima bombs. The total of all nuclear weapons in the world could end all life on Earth several times over.
The UK's nuclear arsenal (or 'Trident') currently consists of around 250 warheads and costs the country £2.8b a year.
The Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CCND) is a group situated in the UK aiming to eliminate all of the world's nuclear weapons.