Georgetown University Professor Phillip A. Karber, alongside a group of his students, recently uncovered secret underground tunnels in China. These tunnels are believed to be housing as many as 3000 nuclear warheads, according to extensive research from Karber and his students.

This greatly exceeds the amount estimated which was from 80 to 400. If this proves to be true then China has grown into a commanding world power, which spells woe for the United States and Russia – the current top two world powers with nuclear supplies. This also may entail the threat of nuclear warfare, of which would be highly catastrophic.

However, this research has come to much criticism and skepticism from the arms-control community, such as the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Federation of American Scientists. These institutions disputed the data, arguing that their kindergarten-style research was unreliable.

Karber and his students based most of their conclusion from information from the Internet, with sources ranging from Google satellite images to a TV docudrama series, loosely based on the lives of soldiers from the Second Artillery Corps (a secret Chinese military branch responsible for guarding nuclear warheads.)

They were also able to obtain Chinese military documents such as a 400-page manual only accessible to Chinese military personnel. These documents were roughly translated using text-capture software. From these translations, with correlation from their visual research, they were able to obtain information yielding to their disturbing conclusion.

Although their accusation may not be entirely accurate or true at all, it is still worth looking into.  Negligence of this issue may lead to possible nuclear warfare. Based from cataclysmic events from World War II (dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki), the results will not be pretty.

The building of the warheads is not the alarming part. The thought of all of this being done in secretly and so rapidly is upsetting. This also makes one wonder if other countries are also constructing nuclear warheads of their own, and if so, how many and why.

It is possible that these tunnels aren’t housing any nuclear warheads at all. They may be intended as a defensive mechanism, a security measure built in case of disastrous events. These tunnels may then serve as a holding/living ground, which is plausible.

Nonetheless this situation must be looked in to, if at all possible. If the accusations prove to be true, then a nuclear apocalypse may be glooming in our future, which is reminiscent of the 1983 film The Day After. So an investigation to clarify these accusations is well needed in order to preserve our security, and our humanity.