What is the difference between atomic, nuclear, and thermonuclear weapons?
Nuclear is a general term for weapons that release energy from nuclear reactions. Atomic refers to the earliest and least sophisticated weapons, which use nuclear fission. This occurs when neutrons bombard the nuclei of heavy elements, such as uranium and plutonium, and the nuclei split, releasing energy and more neutrons, which split still more nuclei. Atomic was the exclusive term until sometime during the Eisenhower administration; Ike said it 31 times in his “Atoms For Peace” address to the United Nations in 1953, but he split the difference in 1957, when a memo with the subject line “Policy regarding use of atomic weapons” accompanied his “Authorization for the Expenditure of Nuclear Weapons.” However, by 1962 JFK was talking about nuclear–not atomic–warheads in the captive land of Cuba, and atomic was relegated largely to 1940s and 1950s holdouts, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and certain bimonthly publications.
