Top U.S. policymakers are eagerly pushing for more military spending to confront China. Recent discoveries of new nuclear missile silos being built in China have only added fuel to the fire. But will China’s actions really change the nuclear balance of power? And what does it mean for global arms control and non-proliferation efforts? Host […]
Fact Sheet: U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Europe
Nuclear weapons owned by the United States have been deployed in Europe since the mid-1950s, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized their storage at allied North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bases on the continent for use against the Soviet Union. Though NATO officially declares itself a “nuclear alliance,” it does not own any nuclear weapons. […]
On Afghanistan and Deterrence
By John Erath The rapid collapse of the Afghan government and takeover by the Taliban have led to a great deal of wondering what went wrong and what lessons may be learned. The chain of events, successes, and many missteps will naturally be studied by scholars and experts in international security and will hopefully inform policy making in […]
Fact Sheet: U.S. Plutonium Pit Production
Updated November 20, 2024 Plutonium pits are a critical component of all U.S. nuclear weapons. The pit acts as a trigger: on detonation, the plutonium sets off a small nuclear reaction, creating a larger secondary explosion in the main nuclear payload. The United States produced between 1,000 and 2,000 pits per year during the Cold […]
Op-ed: How Iran’s research reactors prove the nuclear deal is still working
Research Analyst Samuel Hickey wrote an op-ed in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on how the JCPOA could set a new gold standard for ensuring civilian nuclear programs do not pose proliferation threats. “An underexamined success story from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiations is the effective blocking of Tehran’s ability to collect plutonium […]
