Nuclear Denialism: 78 Years Without a New Atomic Bomb

78 years without another bomb: Nuclear denialism grows

The last time a nuclear weapon was used on civilians was in August 1945. Since then, 78 years have passed, several powers have threatened use in Ukraine, and none has pressed the button. This absence of a third episode feeds an expanding thesis: if the bomb exists, why is it never used when survival is at stake?

The parallel with the pandemic appears immediately in this current. If millions were confined during ELbichito based on a narrative many now dispute, the same machinery could have been set up much earlier. From there, everything is re-read with suspicion: tests, photographs, official figures. The key to the thesis is not physical but empirical: proof that anyone can touch is missing.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: less than 10% of civilian deaths

The only admitted wartime use involves two bombs in Japan in 1945. About 120,000 people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The figure impresses until put in context: over 1.2 million civilians died in World War II overall. The two bombs would be less than 10% of the total. For those doubting the weapon, this data dismantles its supposed uniqueness.

From this jumps the most repeated argument: the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not need to be nuclear. It could have been an incendiary raid like Dresden’s, with the same result. They add that circulating images are largely fake or correspond to closed tests, not the two real explosions.

Why do nuclear states lose wars without using them?

Nuclear states have lost conflicts and none escalated. The list is long. In Vietnam, the US lost about 10,000 aircraft and helicopters and dropped more bombs than in all WWII fronts combined. China fell against Vietnam in 1979. Israel did not win in Lebanon in 2006. None resorted to the ultimate weapon.

The most cited case is Israel in 1973. It is argued they lost by ceding Sinai and had lost 30% of their air force in two weeks. The usual response—that it was actually a victory traded for recognition—does not convince this current. And the live example is Ukraine: Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Snake Island, Kherson, Izium-Kupiansk, Robotyne. Defeat after defeat by an army threatening nuclear holocaust every few months.

In mid-2023, Zelensky broadcast almost live from an air base with the entire Ukrainian high command, including Zaluzhnyi. A tactical nuclear weapon, it is argued, would have ended the war with fewer than a hundred deaths. It was not launched. And the West, they add, would not have moved a finger: over 50,000 Ukrainian civilians have died in attacks with no proportional retaliation.

Palomares, Cádiz, and measurable traces

Against doubt, the most cited physical evidence is in Spain. In Palomares, planes carrying plutonium bombs crashed without detonating; anyone approaching with a Geiger counter will find remains. In 1947, the explosion of the Navy magazine in Cádiz, with 200 tons of TNT, generated a mushroom cloud visible from Cádiz Bay, Huelva, and some Seville towns.

These are 0.2 kilotons, a hundred times less than the Japanese bombs. Here lies the sustancia ilegal: if 200 tons of conventional explosive produce a mushroom cloud and noise, what proof does the shape of a cloud offer? Regarding health effects, trinc-up studies of Hiroshima survivors and descendants detect no genetic damage. The material is interpreted in both directions.

Why demand live footage of a nuclear explosion?

The argument rests on technological intuition. Fifty years ago, Intel launched its first processor, the 4004. Today anyone watches high-definition video on a mobile phone. If applied physics advances this way, one reasons, there should be accessible records of a micro-nuclear explosion. Instead, there are only closed and restricted tests. No one needs to know physics to use a blender, they say: it works because it works.

The weak point of the analogy is that theoretical and applied physics are different things. The equation E=mc² explains the energy released by a bomb, but not how to build it. And Einstein, contrary to belief, never participated in the Manhattan Project: in 1940, US military intelligence denied him security clearance. His name became associated with the weapon by error.

With 78 years, two attributed bombs, and no live record since 1945, the file remains at the same point. Those asking to see a third explosion will not get it. Those defending the weapon also lack, in recent decades, a single image to close the discussion.