USA still has the equivalent of 120,000 Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs

[diamond14]

What a great big boondoggle for war-mongering corporate profiteers...OUR money blown through that HUGE un-audited military contracting department.....$ 5.5 TRILLION for a program that NOBODY ever audits or questions, based on faulty assumptions...few even KNOW about this....

---------------------------------------------

"Today, even though the nuclear arsenal is substantially smaller, we still have the equivalent of 120,000 to 130,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs."


http://www.brookings.org/fp/projects/nucwcost/weapons.htm

Atomic Audit
The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940
Stephen I. Schwartz
Brookings Institution Press 1998
c. 700pp.

Since 1945, the United States has manufactured and deployed more than 70,000 nuclear weapons to deter and if necessary fight a nuclear war. Some observers believe the absence of a third world war confirms that these weapons were a prudent and cost-effective response to the uncertainty and fear surrounding the Soviet Union's military and political ambitions during the cold war. As early as 1950, nuclear weapons were considered relatively inexpensive— providing "a bigger bang for a buck"—and were thoroughly integrated into U.S. forces on that basis. Yet this assumption was never validated. Indeed, for more than fifty years scant attention has been paid to the enormous costs of this effort—more than $5 trillion thus far—and its short and long-term consequences for the nation.

Based on four years of extensive research, Atomic Audit is the first book to document the comprehensive costs of U.S. nuclear weapons, assembling for the first time anywhere the actual and estimated expenditures for the program since its creation in 1940. The authors provide a unique perspective on U.S. nuclear policy and nuclear weapons, tracking their development from the Manhattan Project of World War II to the present day and assessing each aspect of the program, including research, development, testing, and production; deployment; command, control, communications, and intelligence; and defensive measures. They also examine the costs of dismantling nuclear weapons, the management and disposal of large quantities of toxic and radioactive wastes left over from their production, compensation for persons harmed by nuclear weapons activities, nuclear secrecy, and the economic implications of nuclear deterrence.



Aerial view of Technical Area 1 at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico



Scientists at the Savannah River Laboratory in South Carolina use "master-slave manipulators" to handle radioactive materials

[WetBarNone]

1. Who do you trust more with nukes?

Us or them?

[MisterP]

2. who's "them"?

[murray hill farm]

4. maybe them!

we have proven we can not be trusted...we used them once! And then built enough of them to wipe out the planet several times over..and still have enough to do just that.....but hey...we are the good guy, right? So..we get to have them..and to decide that others..who we declare the bad guys..cannot! Crazy? Insane? Yep!!

[diamond14]

5. TWICE to kill innocent civilians, AND thousands of times in testing

leaving behind a horror of DEATH and DESTRUCTION to all animals and people.....



if you give the military a weapon, they will use it...check out these PHOTOS from the U.S. Air Force...above ground testing that VAPORIZED AN ISLAND....




The mushroom cloud formed by the "Mike" test of an experimental thermonuclear device rises above Enewetak Atoll, November 1, 1952. The "Mike" device used liquid deuterium and required extensive cryogenic cooling equipment. It weighed 164,000 pounds (74,546 kilograms) and had a yield of 10.4 megatons.




The above photograph shows five of forty named islands comprising Enewetak Atoll before the "Mike" test (the gray areas surrounding the islands are coral reefs). The test completely vaporized the island of Elugelab as well as portions of Sanil and Teiter (below), leaving a crater 164 feet (50 meters) deep and 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers) wide.



Credit: U.S. Air Force

http://www.brookings.org/fp/projects/nucwcost/mike.htm






Troops participating in exercises at "Camp Desert Rock" (the Nevada Test Site) observe the formation of a mushroom cloud following the detonation of the Dog test on November 1, 1951. This test involved a 21 kiloton device dropped from a B-50 bomber. The device exploded at a height of 1,417 feet (432 meters).

http://www.brookings.org/fp/projects/nucwcost/dog.htm






VIP observers sitting on the patio of the Officer's Beach Club on Parry Island are illuminated by the 81 kiloton Dog test, part of Operation Greenhouse, at Enewetak Atoll, April 8, 1951.


Credit: Defense Special Weapons Agency

http://www.brookings.org/fp/projects/nucwcost/vip.htm

[Maple]

3. Well only one country

has ever used nukes.

And far more countries than are publicized, have em.

[kohodog]

6. Yeah, and that's certainly not enough!

Thank GOD we're developing new ones. If we can blow the whole world apart with One Huge BUNKER BUSTER will Jesus come back sooner?


:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[Spinzonner]

7. Obviously we should be promoting

the growth of lots more Hiroshima-sized targets around the world or we're going to have an imbalance