The
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

50 Facts About U.S. Nuclear Weapons

- All figures in constant 1995 dollars -

1.   Cost of the Manhattan Project (through August 1945):

$20,000,000,000

SOURCES: Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, Jr., The
New World: A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Volume 1,
1939/1946 (Oak Ridge, Tennessee: U.S. AEC Technical Information Center,
1972), pp. 723-724; Condensed AEC Annual Financial Report, FY 1953 (in Fifteenth
Semiannual Report of the Atomic Energy Commission, January 1954, p. 73)

2.   Total number of nuclear missiles built, 1951-present:

67,500

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

3.   Estimated construction costs for ICBM launch pads

and silos, 1957-1964:

$12,000,000,000

Maj. C.D. Hargreaves, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers Ballistic Missile Construction Office (CEBMCO),
"Introduction to the CEBMCO Historical Report and History of the Command
Section, Pre-CEBMCO Thru December 1962," p. 8

4.   Total number of nuclear bombers built, 1945-present:

4,680

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

5.   Peak number of nuclear warheads and bombs

in the stockpile/year:

32,193/1966

Natural Resources Defense
Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

6.   Total number and types of nuclear warheads

and bombs built, 1945-1990:

more than 70,000/65 types

U.S. Department of Energy; Natural Resources Defense
Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

7.   Number currently in the stockpile (1997):

12,500 (8,750 active, 2,500 hedge/contingency stockpile,

1,250 awaiting disassembly)

Natural Resources Defense
Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

8.   Number of nuclear warheads requested

by the Army in 1956 and 1957:

151,000

History of the Custody and
Deployment of Nuclear Weapons, July 1945 Through September 1977, Prepared by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of
Defense (Atomic Energy), February 1978, p. 50 (formerly Top Secret)

9.   Projected U.S. nuclear warheads and bombs

after completion of the START II reductions in 2003:

5,000

U.S. Department of Defense; Natural Resources Defense
Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

10.  Additional warheads the military wants to hold

in inactive reserve to "hedge" against future threats:

2,500

U..S. Department of Defense;
Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

11.  Largest and smallest nuclear bombs ever deployed:

B17/B24 (~42,000 lbs., 10-15 megatons);

W54 (51 lbs., .02 kilotons)

Natural Resources Defense
Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

12.  Peak number of domestic uranium mines in operation (1955):

925

Nineteenth Semiannual
Report of the Atomic Energy Commission,
January 1956, p. 31

13.  Fissile material produced: 104 metric tons of plutonium

and 994 metric tons of highly-enriched uranium

U.S. Department of Energy

14.  Amount of plutonium still in weapons:

43 metric tons

Natural Resources Defense
Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

15.  Number of thermometers which could be filled with

mercury used to produce lithium-6 at the Oak Ridge

Reservation:

11 billion

U.S. Department of Energy

16.  Number of dismantled plutonium "pits"  currently

stored at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas:

9,204 as of September 30, 1996

U.S. Department of Energy

17.  States with the largest number of nuclear weapons:

New Mexico (2,850), Georgia (2,000), Washington (1,600)

and Nevada (1,450)

Robert S. Norris and William
M. Arkin, "Where
the Bombs Are, 1997," NRDC Nuclear Notebook, The Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists, September/October 1997, pp. 62-63

18.  Total known land area occupied by U.S. nuclear

weapons bases and facilities:

36,330 square miles

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

19.  Total land area of the District of Columbia, Maryland,

Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont:

35,992 square miles

Rand McNally Road Atlas and Travel Guide, 1992

20.  Legal fees paid by the Department of Energy to fight

lawsuits from workers and private citizens concerning

nuclear weapons production and testing activities,

from October 1990 through March 1995:

$89,000,000

U.S. Department of Energy

21.  Money paid by the State Department to Japan

following fallout from the 1954 "Bravo" test:

$15,000,000

Barton C. Hacker, Elements
of Controversy: The Atomic Energy Commission and Radiation Safety in Nuclear
Weapons Testing, 1947 -1974, University
of California Press,
1994, p. 158

22.  Money paid by the United States to Marshallese Islanders

to redress damages from nuclear testing:

$226,000,000

op. cit., pp. 270-1; Jonathan
M. Weisgall, Operation Crossroads, The Atomic Tests at Bikini
Atoll, Naval Institute Press, 1994, p. 313

23.  Money paid to U.S. citizens under the Radiation

Exposure and Compensation Act of 1990,

as of June 21, 1995:

$172,000,000 (2,239 claims)

U.S. Department of Justice, Torts Branch, Civil Division

24.  Total cost of the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP)

program, 1946-1961:

$6,500,000,000

"Aircraft Nuclear
Propulsion Program," Report of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy,
September 1959, pp. 11-12

25   Total number of nuclear-powered aircraft

and airplane hangers built:

0 and 1

Ibid; "American
Portrait: ANP," WFAA-TV (Dallas),
1993

26.  Number of secret Presidential Emergency Facilities

built for use during and after a nuclear war:

more than 75

Bill Gulley with Mary Ellen
Reese, Breaking Cover, Simon and Schuster, 1980, pp. 34- 36

27.  Currency stored until 1988 by the Federal Reserve

for use after a nuclear war:

more than $2,000,000,000,000

Edward Zuckerman, The Day
After World War III, The Viking Press, 1984, pp. 287-88

28.  Amount of silver in tons once used at the Oak Ridge,

TN, Y-12 Plant for electrical magnet coils:

14,700

Vincent C. Jones, Manhattan: The Army and the Bomb, U.S. Army
Center for Military
History, 1985, pp. 66-7

29.  Total number of U.S. nuclear weapons tests, 1945-1992:

1,030 (1,126 nuclear devices detonated)

U.S. Department of Energy

30.  First and last test:

July 16, 1945 ("Trinity")

and September 23, 1992 ("Divider")

U.S. Department of Energy

31.  Estimated amount spent between October 1, 1992

and October 1, 1995 on nuclear testing activities:

$1,185,600,000 (0 tests)

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

32.  Cost of 1946 Operation Crossroads weapons tests

("Able" and "Baker") at Bikini Atoll:

$575,000,000

"The Evaluation of the
Atomic Bomb as a Military Weapon," The Final Report of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff Evaluation Board for Operations Crossroads, June 30, 1947, p. 16 (formerly
Top Secret)

33.  Largest U.S. explosion/date:

15 Megatons/March 1, 1954 ("Bravo")

U.S. Department of Energy

34.  Number of islands in Enewetak atoll vaporized

by the November 1, 1952 "Mike" H-bomb test:

1

Chuck Hansen, U.S.
Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History, Orion Books, 1988, pp. 58-59, 95

35.  Number of nuclear tests in the Pacific:

106

Natural Resources Defense
Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

36.  Number of nuclear tests in Nevada:

935

Natural Resources Defense
Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

37.  Number of nuclear weapons tests in Alaska, Colorado

[1 and 2], Mississippi and New Mexico [1, 2 and 3]:

10

Natural Resources Defense
Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

38.  Operational naval nuclear propulsion reactors

vs. operational commercial power reactors:

117 vs. 108

Adm. Bruce DeMars, Deputy
Assistant Director for Naval Reactors, U.S. Navy; Nuclear Regulatory
Commission

39.  Current number of attack (SSN) and

ballistic missile (SSBN) submarines:

73 SSNs and 18 SSBNs

Adm. Bruce DeMars, Deputy
Assistant Director for Naval Reactors, U.S. Navy

40.  Number of high level radioactive waste tanks

in Washington, Idaho and South Carolina:

239

U.S. Department of Energy

41.  Volume in cubic meters of radioactive waste

resulting from weapons activities:

104,000,000

U.S. Department of Energy; Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research

42.  Number of designated targets for U.S. weapons

in the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP)

in 1976, 1986, and 1995:

25,000 (1976), 16,000 (1986) and 2,500 (1995)

Bruce Blair, Senior Fellow,
The Brookings Institution

43.  Cost of January 17, 1966 nuclear weapons accident

over Palomares, Spain (including two lost planes,

an extended search and recovery effort, waste

disposal in the U.S. and settlement claims):

$182,000,000

Joint Committee on Atomic
Energy Interoffice Memorandum, February 15, 1968; Center for Defense
Information

44.  Number of U.S. nuclear bombs lost in accidents

and never recovered:

11

U.S. Department of Defense; Center for Defense
Information; Greenpeace; "Lost Bombs," Atwood-Keeney Productions,
Inc., 1997

45.  Number of Department of Energy federal employees

(in 1996):

18,608

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Worker and Community
Transition

46.  Number of Department of Energy contractor employees

(in 1996):

109,242

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Worker and Community
Transition

47.  Minimum number of classified pages estimated to be

in the Department of Energy's possession:

280 million

A Review of the Department
of Energy Classification Policy and Practice, Committee on Declassification of Information for the Department of
Energy Environmental Remediation and Related Programs, National Research
Council, 1995, pp. 7-8, 68.

48.  Ballistic missile defense spending in 1965 vs.1995:

$2,200,000,000 vs. $2,600,000,000

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

49.  Average cost per warhead to the U.S.

to help Kazakhstan dismantle 104 SS-18 ICBMs

carrying more than 1,000 warheads:

$70,000

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project; Arms Control
Association

50.  Current (1995) estimated annual spending

on all nuclear weapons activities:

more than $33,000,000,000

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project; Center for
Defense Information

The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study
Project - Stephen I. Schwartz, Project Director

The Brookings Institution

1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW,
Washington, D.C.
20036-2188

Telephone (202) 797-6030 - Facsimile (202) 797-6003

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