system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How come the US wasn't hit with sanctions for developing weapons such as the Cobalt bomb?

If the whole point of sanctions is to prevent nations from acquiring and potentially using dangerous weapons, why was the US not officially reprimanded for developing such an inhumane bomb designed specifically to deny areas by irradiation?

If the argument is that the "US would never use it" then why was it developed in the first place?
gpt
Sanctions are a political tool.

Who was going to sanction the largest economy in the world and political and military head of NATO during the cold war? Who would benefit from that? Why would anyone politically aligned with the US want to risk that relationship over a hypothetical bomb?