Most people out there are really ignorant when it comes to nuclear weapons.

Those who oppose them think that governments are willing to just give up their stockpiles and that somehow those in power will give up nuclear wapons out of the goodnes of their hearts.

Those who want to keep nuclear weapons (like Sarah Palin and other of similar right wing tendencies) are thinking that if you keep the wapons, nobody will ever attack you out of fear. The so called MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) principle.

Out there there are only 7 countries with the so called hydrogen bombs (two-stage thermonuclear devices). To put it into perspective, we must realize that WW II saw the deployment of an equivalent of 2 megatons of TNT by all parties involved. In other words, the equivalent of 2,000,000 tons of TNT were detonated by all countires involved in the war.

The first country to develop a thermonuclear device was the US, which developed the Ullam-Teller design (H Bomb) in 1951. The ultimate capability of that bomb was 25 megatons, the equivalent of an explosion of 25,000,000 tons of TNT. Now think about this, a single bomb detonated with the power of 12.5 times all the explosives used in WW II.

Then the Soviet Union followed in 1957 with what is called Sakharov's Third Way (apparently similar to the Ullam Teller design of the US). In 1961 the Soviet Union detonated the largest bomb in history. The Tsar Bomba had a yield of 50 megatons. Originally it had been designed as a 100 megaton bomb, but they decided to cut the yiel in half at the last minute. A single bomb could explode with 25 (and potentially 50) times the amount of all explosives used in WW II.

Later the UK developed its Granite series of bombs in 1957 and ultimately achived explosions of 3 megatons.

The People's Republic of China detonated its H bomb in 1967 and achieved yeilds of 3.3 megatons.

France followed in 1968 with Canopus bomb and achieved 2.1 megatons.

Israel is believed to have H boms, but they have never detonated or tested any nuclear weapons (obviously the reduced land area of Israel makes it unsafe to test any devices. It is bleived that Israel had nuclear devices as early as 1961 since Stanislaw Ulam probably passed his design onto Israel from very early on.

India detonated an H bomb in 1998, but achieved only about 50 kilotons of yield.

Thus we can see that there are only 5 countries with H bombs that yield in the megaton range. While schematics of H bombs are well known, details of their design are the most closely guarded secrets in the world, and they should be because in reality nuclear weapons are not as complex as people think. It is the purification of the fissile material that is difficult, and Pakistan's developments in that area and how Pakistan has sold that information means that nuclear weapons are now easier to make than ever.

Other countries have nuclear weapons of the type called "uranium" and "plutonium" type. Pakistan has detonated nuclear weapons and is still increasing its stockpile. North Korea is a recent addition to the nuclear club, but compared to other countries their techonology is primitive.

South Africa had nuclear weapons in the 1980s but apparently dismantled them and its nuclear programs in the 1990s. Most countries in NATO share nuclear weapons and are technologically advanced enough to develop them on their own, as are most countries that were part of the Soviet Union. Belarus, Kazkhstand and the Ukraine inherited thousands of missiles from the Soviet Union but they got rid of them and returned them to Russia or destroyed them.

In other places countries like Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Albania, Algeria, Syria, and a few others have the technical know-how but refuse to pursue nuclear weapons, at least openly! The US is on Iran's case about it, although the motivivations there are more political since Pakistan is 1000 times the threat that Iran is, but then Pakistan is an "ally" of the US.

In my opinion, in the next 30 years we will see at least 10 other countires detonate nuclear weapons and there is nothing the US or Russia can do about it.

The US insisted in pursuing the arms race during the Cold War (of course, the Soviet Union was happy to follow along). Now the US has the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction and it has become impossible for the US to feel safe without them. People like Sarah Palin play on that fear because when the bombs drop, they are not the ones who will do the dying. The likes of Sarah Palin will safely stash themselves away in underground bunkers while the rest of the world dies. I wonder if these people ever saw Dr. Strangelove.