nuclear-news

USA Congress members – no idea how many nuclear weapons USA has!

How Many Nuclear Weapons Does the U.S. Have? Don’t AskCongress… Lisbeth Gronlund, physicist & co-director, Global Security, 17 Dec 13 A fascinating 2-minute video from Global Zero features short surprise interviews with members of Congress, who are asked the simple question: How many nuclear weapons does the U.S. have? Most couldn’t answer the question and resorted to responses like “I don’t have the exact number,” “It’s classified” and “It changes every day.” The two who provided numbers responded with “300” and “more than 15,000.” According to the Global Zero press release, the organization polled more than 70 members of Congress and “99% of then did not know—even roughly speaking—how many nuclear weapons the United States has.”

(How many does the U.S. have? According to the most authoritative account, by Hans Kristensen and Robert Norris, the U.S. deploys about 2,150 nuclear weapons on aircraft, and land-based and submarine-based missiles. It has an additional estimated 2,500 weapons in reserve storage, for a total arsenal of about 4,650. On top of that, there are some 3,000 weapons awaiting dismantlement, for a grand total of roughly 7,700.)

Perhaps not surprisingly, the American public is also fairly ignorant about the size of the U. S. nuclear arsenal……http://blog.ucsusa.org/how-many-nuclear-weapons-does-the-united-states-have-347

December 20, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war