'We need a chorus of wiser voices to still the cries of the nuclear warriors and calm journalistic nuclear voyeurism.'
. But a nuclear explosion would be much more destructive as the heat from the blast would set off uncontrollable mega-fires and its radiation would kill or injure thousands.
"There is way too much loose talk about using nuclear weapons," Tannenwald told me."We need more discussion of the dangers of breaking the nuclear taboo." Not just first use, but second use."We wouldn't respond to the use of chemical weapons by using chemical weapons ourselves," she argues. The same must be true for nuclear weapons.
What do we do to lower the risks?"Assemble the elders," says Tannenwald, meaning that we need experienced, senior leaders to reinforce the barriers to any nuclear use. Shethe testimony of former Secretary of Defense James Mattis."I do not think there is any such thing as a tactical nuclear weapon," he told Congress in 2018,"Any nuclear weapon use any time is a strategic game changer.