Selected Useful Analyses on U.S. Nuclear Weapons

For more information see:  • Plutonium pit production • Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility • NNSA Planning & Budgeting

 • Role of nuclear weapons grows as geopolitical relations deteriorate—new SIPRI Yearbook out now, Jun 17, 2024
    – Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, World Nuclear Forces

 • Press backgrounder: U.S. Considers Expanding Its Nuclear Arsenal, Jun 10, 2024

 • Los Alamos to make plutonium cores ("pits") for new ICBM, Savannah River to make pits for new submarine missile warhead, press release, Apr 17, 2024

 • Huge increase in nuclear warhead funding approved for this year; more requested for next year, press release, Mar 12, 2024

 • Warhead plutonium modernization spending, actual & proposed by site, spreadsheet, May 6, 2022

 • Assuring Destruction Forever, 2022 edition, Reaching Critical Will, WILPF, Jan 2022

 • Update on US Nuclear Modernization for the International Disarmament Community, Mello & Williams-Mello, Jan 7, 2021

 • Plutonium Modernization costs, LASG chart, May 27, 2020

 • Update on US Nuclear Weapons Modernization for the International Disarmament Community, Greg Mello & Trish Williams-Mello, May 13, 2020

 • Assuring Destruction Forever, WILPF, Mello, et.al., Apr 2019

 • Update on US Nuclear Modernization for the International Disarmament Community, Greg Mello, Apr 9, 2018

 • Leaked Trump Nuclear Posture Review Aims to Continue Obama Weapons Modernization, with Significant Tweaks, press release, Jan 12, 2018

 • Modernized nuclear force is destabilizing, Mello, Albuquerque Journal, Feb 26, 2016

 • Assuring destruction forever: Nuclear Weapons Modernization, Reaching Critical Will, Apr 2015

   — United States - Modernization chapter, Mello & Williams-Mello, Apr 2015

See also: That Old Designing Fever, Greg Mello, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Jan/Feb 2000

    – for reference: Strategic Systems Update, Rear Adm. G. Peter Nanos, The Submarine Review, Apr 1997

Papers and presentations on nuclear weapons and modernization by Theodore (Ted) Postol, Ph.D. (bio)

     – Droning Russia’s nuke radars is the dumbest thing Ukraine can do, Theodore Postol, Responsible Statecraft, Jun 5, 2024

     – Search Fans of Russian Strategic Nuclear Early Warning Radars Attacked by Ukraine, Theodore A. Postol, Jun 1, 2024

     – A Very "Limited" Nuclear Attack? MIT Professor Ted Postol explains, Daniel Davis, Deep Dive, May 24, 2024

     – A Route to Armageddon: Technical Shortfalls in Russia's Nuclear Early Warning Systems, T. Postol, Oct 21, 2022

     – The burst-height compensating super-fuze, Kristensen McKinzie, Postol, Mar 1, 2017

     – Letter to U.S. news media: U.S.-Russian strategic instability from U.S. Trident warhead upgrades (important analysis by Dr. Ted Postol), May 3, 2016

     – How the US Nuclear Weapons Modernization Program Is Increasing the Chances of Accidental Nuclear War with Russia, Postol, Harvard College Peace Action, Feb 25, 2016 (see also 1998 paper below for technical details); audio file of Ted Postol's presentation; also longer talk and more slides.

     – The Dynamics of Possible Nuclear Extinction, Postol, video presentation at Helen Caldicott symposium, Feb 28, 2015

     – Near Miss, Postol, Boston Sunday Globe, Jan 25, 2015

     – How the Obama Administration Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Postol, The Nation, Dec 29, 2014

     – The Capabilities of Trident against Russian Silo-Based Missiles: Implications for START III and Beyond, Lewis & Postol, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Feb 2, 1998