Russia and the USA have "N at O" functioning nuclear weapons

The old superstitions of Zeus floating in the sky have been replaced with NuZeus fantasies: Viruses, prions, moon landing, holocaust, Hitler dying in Germany, planes on 9/11 being real and not CGI, and the list keeps floating towards Mars with NASA claiming the planet has virtually no atmosphere and yet it slows down the landing of various rovers with parachutes.

Getting to the point: Huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons just don't exist on planet earth.

Three main possibilities exist regarding nuclear weapons:

1) They don't exist and can't be made.

2) They exist and there's lots of them.

3) They degrade, expire, and very few are currently functioning.

Number 1 is my reality and number 2 is impossible, but let's humor number 3 for the sake of amusement and how nice fairy tales make us feel. After all, Mary Poppins is my favorite movie.

During the 1990s, before the internet was a "thing," a couple American nuclear scientists stated the following: Over 90% of the nukes within American submarines don't work, and this truth was published in a hidden corner, of a garbage newspaper; however; I've always kept this little gem of an article in the back of my mind.

Recently a comment was posted on a pro-Russian website, which answered most of my questions regarding the reality of that previously mentioned article.

The author of the following scientific explanation has hundreds of posts on the pro-Russian site. I still think nuclear weapons are ephemeral nonsense but the following post makes for a good read.

PNIs are (pulsed neutron initiators) and INIs are (internal neutron initiators):

"Image has nothing to do with it... Anything complex in technology has a limited operating time... Nuclear weapons are no exception...

Uranium nuclear charges have the so-called. PNI – pulsed neutron initiator. At the moment the uranium reaction begins, INI increases the neutron content in the charge several times. This is why uranium ammunition explodes. Without INI, the uranium charge would be destroyed, since the fission reaction would proceed more slowly than necessary. And the warhead would simply collapse from heating, and a nuclear explosion would not occur. With the use of INI, the chain reaction outpaces the thermal destruction of the uranium warhead. Strontium IRIs were used in uranium warheads. The warranty period for 100% response of the strontium INI is about 12 years. At the beginning of the existence of atomic weapons, the INIs were radon; the warranty period for 100% operation of the radon INIs was 6 months. In uranium warheads there is a gradual increase in the activity of U-233 and U-232. The U-232 increases its activity tens of times; when trying to detonate such a uranium warhead, it will not explode normally - thermal destruction of the warhead will occur, since the U-232 will react faster than the U-235. The service life of a uranium warhead is no more than 30 years due to the multiple increase in the activity of U-232. After this period, the uranium warhead loses its ability to operate 100% normally.

In plutonium warheads, a chain reaction is constantly going on - albeit very slowly. Plutonium - P-239 gradually turns into plutonium P-240. Therefore, all plutonium warheads require constant cooling (if overheated, a plutonium warhead loses the ability to explode properly - because the calculated geometric shape of the warhead is violated). When the amount of P-240 reaches 6%, the plutonium warhead ceases to be capable of exploding normally (this is why energy-grade plutonium produced at nuclear power plants cannot be used as weapons-grade plutonium - in energy-grade plutonium the P-240 content reaches 20% of the total amount). This time in powerful plutonium warheads ranges from 15 to 18 years. In low-power plutonium charges – from 9 months to 4 years. There is also a gradual and inevitable poisoning of the warhead with various harmful isotopes, for example, americium A-241, which arise during a slowly occurring chain reaction in the warhead. When a certain amount of A-241 is reached, the warhead loses its ability to explode normally. Plutonium warheads also use INI. Without them, the plutonium warhead will be destroyed - P-240 plutonium will begin to react faster than P-239 plutonium and the warhead will be destroyed by heating. And for this reason, a normal - standard nuclear explosion will not happen, there will only be a scattering of radioactive material over a small area. INI makes it possible to overtake the uncontrolled chain reaction of thermal destruction of the warhead. In plutonium warheads, IRI based on deuterium-tritium was used. The warranty period for 100% response of such an INI is 10 years. As already noted, the service life of a powerful plutonium warhead is no more than 18 years. After this period, the plutonium warhead loses its ability to operate 100% normally.

All our nuclear explosive devices have plutonium-uranium warheads. 1990 years have passed since the production of the last nuclear warheads, which was stopped in 91-30. The last ton of weapons-grade uranium, pre-processed into low-enriched uranium, was exported from Russia back in 2013. But they didn’t produce anything new. Weapons-grade plutonium ceased production back in 1989-90. Until 1994, a small batch of weapons-grade plutonium was produced for the so-called. “rejuvenation” of previously released plutonium warheads. Then all reactors producing weapons-grade plutonium were stopped, except for one, which was operating in power mode. The reactor was finally shut down in 2009.

Back in 1994, the USA, England, France, and Russia concluded an agreement to stop the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. The PRC did not sign the treaty, but committed to comply with it. Israel also did not sign the treaty, but stopped the production of nuclear weapons in 2004, reserving the right to resume its production if necessary. India, Pakistan, and North Korea, of course, did not sign the agreement. This agreement is of unlimited duration, its validity began in 1997. But in the USSR, the production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium was stopped under M. Gorbachev. None of the signatories announced their withdrawal from the agreement. The population of Russia knows very little about it; the vast majority do not even suspect its existence. Everyone is sure that the Russian Federation is still a nuclear power."

Full scale nuclear war is impossible and it will not be humanity's demise. Our descent into extinction will be much more brutal and savage as we run out of mineral ores and destroy the biosphere.