any weapon in which the explosion results from the energy released by a reaction involving atomic nuclei, either by fission -- of uranium or plutonium; or, fusion -- of a heavier nucleus with two lighter hydrogen ones. Thus, the A-for atomic bomb, and the H, for hydrogen bomb are both nuclear weapons. In the history of the modern world as we know it, the atomic bomb was only used once to kill human beings: it was dropped on the Japanese people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Behind any discussion of radiation must necessarily loom the specter of full-scale atomic war. That a single thermonuclear weapon can cause severe radiation damage hundreds of miles beyond its area of immediate devastation is all too well known. That enough such weapons exploded in an all-out war might render the entire earth, or large parts of it, uninhabitable, is at least conceivable. The nuclear stakes are global: life-maintaining and life-diminishing decisions must be made by informed individuals, communities, and nations today. Children of the Atomic Bomb Survivors Seventy thousand new-borns were examined in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Nagasaki, 500-800 babies were examined in their homes. No evidence of genetic injuries were detected at that time. But today, in 2008, new studies done on survivors and their offspring are revealing conclusive DNA genetic changes and malformations. These studies utilize newer modalities to detect DNA injuries. The children of survivors, now adults, are concerned how genetic damage from the bomb may be transmitted to their