From: Kevan
Newsgroups: alt.slack
Date: Fri, Jan 4, 2002
50 Facts About U.S. Nuclear Weapons
The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project
50 Facts About U.S. Nuclear Weapons
- Except where noted all figures are in constant 1996 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 more than 1,000
ICBM launch pads and silos, and support facilities,
from 1957-1964:
nearly $14,000,000,000
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; U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers Ballistic Missile Construction Office, "U.S. Air Force ICBM
Construction Program," undated chart (circa 1965)
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., .01 kilotons, .02 kilotons-1 kiloton)
Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project
12. Peak number of operating domestic uranium mines (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" stored
at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas:
12,067 (as of May 6, 1999)
U.S. Department of Energy
17. States with the largest number of nuclear weapons:
New Mexico (2,450), Georgia (2,000), Washington (1,685),
Nevada (1,350), and North Dakota (1,140)
William M. Arkin, Robert S. Norris, and Joshua Handler, Taking Stock: Worldwide
Nuclear Deployments 1998 (Washington, D.C.: Natural Resources Defense Council,
March 1998)
18. Total known land area occupied by U.S. nuclear
weapons bases and facilities:
15,654 square miles
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project
19. Total land area of the District of Columbia,
Massachusetts, and New Jersey:
15,357 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:
$97,000,000
U.S. Department of Energy
21. Money paid by the State Department to Japan
following fallout from the 1954 "Bravo" test:
$15,300,000
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 and non-monetary compensation paid by the
the United States to Marshallese Islanders since
1956 to redress damages from nuclear testing:
at least $759,000,000
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project
23. Money paid to U.S. citizens under the Radiation
Exposure and Compensation Act of 1990, as of
January 13, 1998:
approximately $225,000,000 (6,336 claims approved;
3,156 denied)
U.S. Department of Justice, Torts Branch, Civil Division
24. Total cost of the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP)
program, 1946-1961:
$7,000,000,000
"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. Between July 1955 and
March 1957, a specially modified B-36 bomber made 47 flights with a three
megawatt air-cooled operational test reactor (the reactor, however, did not
power the plane).
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 at
its Mount Pony facility for use after a nuclear war:
more than $2,000,000,000
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 (1,125 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:
$1,200,000,000 (0 tests)
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project
32. Cost of 1946 Operation Crossroads weapons tests
("Able" and "Baker") at Bikini Atoll:
$1,300,000,000
Weisgall, Operation Crossroads, pp. 294, 371
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 U.S. nuclear tests in Nevada:
911
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:
129 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:
80 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. Estimated 1998 spending on all U.S. nuclear
weapons and weapons-related programs:
$35,100,000,000
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project
The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project
Stephen I. Schwartz, Director
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036-2188
Telephone (202) 797-6030 - Facsimile (202) 797-6003
E-mail: sschwartz@bullatomsci.org
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