This year, the Trump administration asked Congress for nearly $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon and nuclear weapons in its annual President’s Budget Request — a huge increase over last year’s already massive request. This is a number that 59% of people believe is too high, according to recent polling from ReThink Media and the Costs […]
How ‘The Brink of War’ Calls Us to Action
by Emma Sandifer In 1986, with the Cold War winding down and the Soviet Union on its last legs, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev met in a tiny house on the coast of Reykjavik, Iceland, to decide whether there would be peace or war in the world. The new movie, […]
Reflections On My Summer Internship: Lyle Seeligson
by Lyle Seeligson, Policy Intern, Summer 2026 My first conversation about nuclear weapons was with my mother. It was 2008; I had just turned ten years old. She explained that we were in a war in a place called Iraq. She told me how the war had been started because we thought Iraq had dangerous weapons. She said I shouldn’t worry, though — those weapons […]
Plutonium for Private Industry: A Proliferation Problem
By Lyle Seeligson The federal government will soon be handing over nuclear bomb material to private companies. In May, the Trump administration announced its intent to allow nuclear energy start-ups to use the Department of Energy’s excess plutonium pits — dangerous nuclear explosives collected from decommissioned Cold War-era warheads — to make nuclear fuel for […]
Nuclear Terrorism is Still a Threat. Why are We Cutting Funding Preventing It?
By Lyle Seeligson The need to address nuclear terrorism remains urgent. So why is the federal government cutting funding for the programs that prevent foreign and domestic terrorists from causing a nuclear disaster? According to the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre director, “the threat [of nuclear terrorism] has never been so high as it is today.” […]
