Nuclear weapon

An explosive device that releases energy through nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, or both, producing blast, heat, and radiation.

Nuclear fission: The splitting of an atomic nucleus into lighter nuclei, releasing energy and usually additional neutrons. It supplies the explosive energy in fission weapons and many thermonuclear designs.
Manhattan Project: The United States-led research and engineering program that developed the first atomic bombs during World War II. It created the first deployable nuclear weapons.
Nuclear deterrence: A strategy that seeks to prevent attack by threatening unacceptable nuclear retaliation. The threat of nuclear use became a central argument for avoiding direct great-power war.
Strategic nuclear weapon: A nuclear weapon intended primarily to threaten or attack an adversary's major military, economic, or political assets. Strategic weapons underpin deterrence directed at an opponent's national capacity.
Conventional weapon: A weapon that does not rely on nuclear, chemical, or biological effects to cause harm. Its destructive energy comes from chemical reactions or physical impact, not nuclear reactions.
Nuclear fusion: The joining of light atomic nuclei into heavier nuclei, releasing energy when the products have greater binding energy. Fusion reactions provide much of the yield in thermonuclear weapons.
Trinity test: The first detonation of a nuclear weapon, conducted in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. This test demonstrated that the Manhattan Project's plutonium bomb design worked.
Mutual assured destruction: A deterrence condition in which opposing nuclear powers can each inflict devastating retaliation after a first strike. It captures the reciprocal vulnerability that shaped Cold War nuclear strategy.
Tactical nuclear weapon: A nuclear weapon intended for battlefield or theater-level military objectives rather than national strategic targets. Its proposed battlefield role distinguishes it from weapons designed for strategic attacks.
Chemical weapon: A weapon that uses toxic chemicals to injure or kill through their chemical effects on living organisms. It is an unconventional weapon whose primary effect is chemical rather than nuclear.

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