Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century

Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century
Nuclear weapons have been a focus of FAS work since its founding in 1945 by scientists concerned about control of the awesome new technology they had helped create.

Today we are often asked to speak on the dangers of radiological weapons known as dirty bombs. We inform on the dangers of nuclear weapons proliferation by individuals, non-state terrorists, or states. We follow next generation nuclear weapons development including proposed “bunker busters.”

We stay on top of the debate over resuming nuclear weapons testing. We track Administration policy and hard-to-find reports for Congress.

In January 2005 FAS released a study that asked: What missions remain for US nuclear weapons now, 15 years after the end of the Cold War? What rationales justify our keeping 6,000 deployed warheads, plus missiles, bombers and other support, at a cost of <$8 billion taxpayer dollars per year? Why does Russia try to keep <5,000 warheads officially deployed, though they are daily more prone to accidental launch against?