Nuclear Facilities and Nuclear Weapons as a Guarantee of Peace

The global peace is as old as the nuclear weapons (NW)-71 years. It would be an overstatement to describe the Cold War as a long peace since a number of local wars were fought but not between superpowers and not using NW. The difference between nuclear and conventional weapons is well known: figuratively speaking, the use of the formers would spoil the winners’ triumph due to the extensive radioactive contamination. 

This is the probable reason why some bellicose leaders have advocated nuclear disarmament. Deterrence by credible threat of retaliation is another peace-preserving mechanism enhanced by NW. Presence of NW has obviously contributed to responsibility of political and military decisions. The same is true for nuclear facilities such as the nuclear power plants (NPP): destruction of a NPP would cause a contamination by radionuclides accumulated in the reactor. Note that contamination after the Chernobyl accident resulted from destruction of only one reactor.