# Nuclear weapons stop working- what happens? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 30, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-weapons-stop-working-what-happens/623497 "2012-05-30T00:24:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-weapons-stop-working-what-happens/623497/21 "2012-06-01T06:54:24Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > One day without warning, our Solar system aligns with the dark matter beam emanating from the galactic core, and for the next 10,000 years nuclear fission simply doesn’t work anymore. How would the world react? My guesses: > > [ol] > [li]The loss of nuclear reactors causes disruption from moderate to severe. The more so since ordinary radioactive decay is unaffected and we now have trillions of curies of useless radioactive waste.[/li][li]The major military powers realize that full-scale World War Two-type conflicts are now possible again. A massive move by the USA, Russia and China to reconfigure their militaries back towards mass-production warfare.Russia now has far less to fear from NATO and starts throwing it’s weight around. China does the same in the Pacific Rim, with Japan and the other “Tigers” desperately seeking enhanced alliances with the USA. The USA finds itself suffering from severe overstretch.[/li][li]Small states like Israel, Pakistan (and provisionally, North Korea) that relied on nukes as a final guarantee against larger neighbors suddenly find themselves much less secure.[/li] > Anything else? > [/ol] I’d foresee a space race, who holds the orbital high ground sets the target co-ordinates for space based kinetics. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-weapons-stop-working-what-happens/623497/22 "2012-06-01T08:41:14Z")
Short term, the US would probably withdraw every single troop in the middle eastern theatre into Israel until they could retrofit their aircraft carrier battlegroups. South-East Asia would have a collective apoplexy - India, Pakistan, China and all their neighbouring countries would drop everything in their hands and just watch what the others were doing. Russia would essentially shrug and go “Eh.” ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-weapons-stop-working-what-happens/623497/23 "2012-06-01T14:17:14Z")
Would there be plate tectonics consequences from losing the radioactive decay heat inside the earth’s core? Or would that be too long-term for humans to notice? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-weapons-stop-working-what-happens/623497/24 "2012-06-02T04:23:34Z")
> [@Gukumatz](#): > > Short term, the US would probably withdraw every single troop in the middle eastern theatre into Israel until they could retrofit their aircraft carrier battlegroups. South-East Asia would have a collective apoplexy - India, Pakistan, China and all their neighbouring countries would drop everything in their hands and just watch what the others were doing. Russia would essentially shrug and go “Eh.” :dubious: why would we do that? What would the purpose be in having the US shift every troop in the middle east to Israel? What problem would this be solving? (I’m assuming this wasn’t a whoosh and you were serious). -XT [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuclear-weapons-stop-working-what-happens/623497.md?page=1)