Mass nuclear weapons were close to becoming standard by Corina Ciubotaru

Throughout human history, every country had its good times and its bad times. The Cold War was one of the world's darker moments as the biggest nations fought silently to rule it. America and Russia each wanted a piece of the post-World War II world so they resorted to ruthless, violent acts against each other's supporters. Recently surfaced documents approved in 1948 in the U.S. show that Americans planned on researching biochemical weapons and using radioactive material left over from bomb manufacturing to poison enemy civilian areas that were to be evacuated and then rendered impossible to live in. For now, the only nuclear weapons ever used to such a purpose were the bombs dropped upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which led to the end of World War II and killed around 160,000 people instantly and countless others in subsequent diseases. Other radioactive materials would probably have been used by spies to quietly kill targets, as these substances can not be detected by the human senses. They cause slow deaths and there is no cure known for them; inconspicuous and ruthless, they make the perfect spy weapons but due to their devastating effects, nuclear weapons in general and atomic bombs in particular have been prohibited by international laws. Still, the recent death by poisoning with radioactive polonium-210 of Aleksandr Litvinenko, one of President Putin's harshest critics, goes to show they exist somewhere in evil hands. Radioactive by-products can be created either as a result of nuclear fission processes, activities such as oil refining or natural occurrences.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071008/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/assassination_weapon;_ylt=AsSiPcM2N3LoiqzWbyzzNsys0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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