 Nuclear weapon, a nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission-fission bomb or from a combination of fission and fusion reactions thermonuclear bomb. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first test of a fission atomic bomb released an amount of energy approximately equal to 20,000 tons of TNT-80 for TJ. The first thermonuclear hydrogen bomb test released energy approximately equal to 10 million tons of TNT-40 to PJ. A thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds 1,100 kg can release energy equal to more than 1.2 million tons of TNT-5.0 PJ. A nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate an entire city by blast, fire, and radiation. Since they are weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation of nuclear weapons is of focus of international relations policy. Nuclear weapons have been used twice in war, both times by the United States against Japan near the end of World War II. On August 6, 1945, the U.S. Army Air Forces detonated a uranium-gun type fission bomb nicknamed Little Boy over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, the U.S. Army Air Forces detonated a plutonium-emplosion type fission bomb nicknamed Fat Man over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. These bombings caused injuries that resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 civilians and military personnel. The ethics of these bombings and their role in Japan's surrender are subjects of debate. Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated over 2,000 times for testing and demonstration. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are suspected of seeking them. The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons and acknowledged possessing them are chronologically by date of first test the United States. The Soviet Union succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea. Israel is believed to possess nuclear weapons, though, in a policy of deliberate ambiguity, it does not acknowledge having them. Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands are nuclear weapons sharing states. South Africa is the only country to have independently developed and then renounced and dismantled its nuclear weapons. The treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons aims to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons, but its effectiveness has been questioned, and political tensions remained high in the 1970s and 1980s. Modernization of weapons continues to this day.