go nuclear

go nuclear (third-person singular simple present goes nuclear, present participle going nuclear, simple past went nuclear, past participle gone nuclear)

1. (of a country) To acquire nuclear weapons.
   • 2000, Hooman Peimani, Nuclear Proliferation in the Indian Subcontinent, →ISBN, page 28:

     In this context, the humiliating defeat of 1971 and the Indian nuclear test were major factors in the Pakistani decision to go nuclear.

   • 2008, Ted Galen Carpenter, Smart Power: Toward a Prudent Foreign Policy for America, →ISBN, page 111:

     A decision to go nuclear has important adverse diplomatic repercussions as well. Trying to build a nuclear arsenal is not the way to win friends in the international community.

   • 2010, Shane J. Maddock, Nuclear Apartheid, →ISBN:

     This agreement codified nuclear apartheid, leaving in place three types of nuclear states: the five recognized nuclear powers (the United States, Britain, China, France, and the Soviet Union), NATO and Warsaw Pact allies with access to nuclear weapons but not ownership, and a large class of non-nuclear states who renounced their right to go nuclear.

2. To start using nuclear technology.
   • 1997, Robert Pool, Beyond Engineering: How Society Shapes Technology, →ISBN:

     Now the cost-benefiters calculated nuclear power to be a more efficient investment than building more coal-fired plants, which put them in agreement with the technological optimists on the question of whether to go nuclear.

   • 2005, A.W. Galston & ‎Christiana Z. Peppard, Expanding Horizons in Bioethics, →ISBN, page 240:

     However, once we bite the bullet and decide to go nuclear again, it will take at least a decade before new plants start coming on line.

   • 2009, Resurgence, page 30:

     When US energy policy went nuclear, about the same time as some large mines flooded in Canada and Australia, hedge fund speculators dived into the market and uranium shot up to US$138 a pound, settling back eventually to about half that price, but still almost ten times the US$7 low.

   • 2013, George G. Berg, Measurement of Risks, →ISBN, page 338:

     I suppose what he is worried about is epitomized by a conversation that I had ten years ago with the Executive Vice President of a utility that was going nuclear.

3. To involve the use of nuclear weapons.
   • 1984, Douglas P. Lackey, Moral Principles and Nuclear Weapons, →ISBN, page 236:

     Some have suggested that nuclear disarmament will increase the chance that conventional wars will occur since nation states will no longer be deterred by the thought that wars can go nuclear.

   • 2012, Paul Wilkinson, Technology and Terorrism, →ISBN, page 48:

     This paper does not deal with nuclear terrorism as Thomas Schelling once defined it — namely being he 'balance of nuclear terror' between the major nuclear weapon state - but rather refers to terrorist groups going nuclear.

   • 2015, Dean Marquis, Roxanne of Dark Energy: A Construct of Science Fiction, →ISBN:

     The best place to be if things went nuclear was in a bomb shelter.

4. (figuratively) To throw a fit; To become enraged with an angry outburst.
   • 2011, Kevin Dodds, Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography, →ISBN, page 150:

     “We cut the show short, and the brothers went nuclear on me afterward,” said Sammy. “They crucified me for that."

   • 2015, James Patterson, NYPD Red 3, →ISBN:

     He snickered. Janelle was going nuclear. “Why didn't you tell me?” she shouted.

   • 2015, Helen Walmsley-Johnson, The Invisible Woman: Taking on the Vintage Years, →ISBN:

     There's barely a week that goes by without me going nuclear about something or other to do with middle age as portrayed in the media.

5. (figuratively) to escalate to an extremely high level of excitement or enthusiasm.
   • 1999 November, Ted West, “Kicking and Screaming”, in Boating, page 114:

     Years ago, the sport spread from New Zealand to Australia—and went nuclear. Overnight, it seemed, Australia boasted 40 tracks, which were promptly divided into several warring factions.

   • 2011, Lucy Monroe, The Sheikh's Bartered Bride, →ISBN:

     As if the release of her emotions had freed something in him, his ardor increased and the kiss went nuclear.

   • 2015, Marky Ramone & ‎Richard Herschlag, Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone, →ISBN, page 358:

     But the fever pitch went nuclear when the Ramones took the stage.

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