Nuclear security

Can America Trust Its Aging Nuclear Arsenal?

Much talk during this election cycle has focused, understandably, on the fitness of the presidential candidates to command the formidable nuclear arsenal of the United States. What has been lost in this heated debate is a more fundamental issue: the condition of our nuclear weapons and their reliability in the years ahead.

To ensure future deterrence, the U.S. needs to have a well-maintained nuclear-weapons “complex,” as we in the field call it—that is, the array of laboratories and specialized industrial plants within the Department of Energy that keep our nuclear arsenal in working condition. That complex faces serious challenges today and could begin to break down within the next decade, with dire ramifications for the security of the U.S. and the world.