From All Our Might:Walter Pincus reports today that the US is far ahead of schedule in reducing the number of deployed nuclear warheads down to 2,200, as agreed with Russia under the Moscow Treaty. Notably, the treaty’s weakness is that it only discusses deployed warheads, and not those in storage. Pincus’ article states we have some 5000 nuclear warheads in total, and that 3,000 - 4,000 are in storage awaiting dismantling. A January Time article speculates that the older, stockpiled warheads could theoretically fail to detonate properly due to “plutonium pit decay”. (More on that later.)
So, pay attention to the Moscow Treaty reductions with an eye towards the “Reliable Replacement Warhead,” a long-lasting, lower maintenance nuclear warhead:
Some experts think the Bush administration does not get enough credit for the reductions it has made in nuclear weapons. Robert S. Norris, a senior research associate at the Natural Resources Defense Fund, said yesterday, “It is little appreciated or known that the two Bush presidencies have gotten rid of three-quarters of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.”
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My Comment: The money quote from this post is the following:
“It is little appreciated or known that the two Bush presidencies have gotten rid of three-quarters of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.”
Indeed.