The National Nuclear Security AdministrationNNSA for its acronym in English, has declassified and updated, for the first time since 2021, inventory numbers of nuclear weapons from the United States. Among other data, this federal agency has revealed that last year the US dismantled only 69 already retired nuclear warheads, the lowest number since 1994, and that the total of nuclear weapons in its inventory is 3,748 as of September 2023.
He inventory of the NNSA includes Strategic and non-strategic warheads -tactical- both active and inactiveWhile active warheads are considered operational and ready for use, inactive ones are stored in depots in a non-operational state. Although they can be deployed, this process takes time. and requires the installation of its tritium charges and other components with a more limited lifespan.
Tritium, along with deuterium, is used to boost the chain reaction in nuclear weapons, thereby achieving a more powerful explosion. In thermonuclear weapons, tritium is typically used to boost the primary fission or first stage. Since tritium is radioactive and decays rapidly, this component is removed from inactive warheads..
The inventory does not include retired warheadswhich are considered non-functional, nor the dismantled warheads.
The NNSA report compares the 3,748 warheads listed last September with the peak number reached in 1967at one of the most critical points of the Cold War, of 31,255 warheads. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, beginning the process that led to the end of the Cold War, the US inventory was 22,217 warheadsThe most recent figure represents an 88% reduction since 1967 and an 83% decrease since 1989.
Much of this reduction was achieved through the dismantling of non-strategic nuclear weapons —that is, tactics—, the number of which has been reduced by more than 90% since 1991.
According to the NNSA, 12,088 warheads were dismantled between 1994 and 2023. However, the pace has declined since 2007 and since September 2020 they have been dismantled 405 nuclear warheads. In 2023, only 69 nuclear warheads withdrawn, the lowest number since 1994. In 2015 there were around 2,500 warheads stored and awaiting dismantlinga number that has only dropped to 2,000 in almost a decade.
Hans Kristensendirector of the FAS Nuclear Information Project, notes of the numbers provided by the NNSA that ‘although the New START treaty has had some indirect effect on the size of the inventory due to reduced requirements, the largest reductions since 2007 have been caused by changes in presidential orientation, strategy and modernization programs.’
The NNSA notes in its report that ‘Increasing transparency in states’ nuclear inventories is important for non-proliferation and disarmament effortsincluding commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and efforts to address all types of nuclear weapons, including deployed and non-deployed, and strategic and non-strategic.’