Nuclear Disarmament

Global warming may eliminate our species over the next 100 years. The nuclear arsenal may do it in the next 100 minutes. – Elaine Scarry

Mission

The Nuclear Disarmament Working Group promotes education and action leading to nuclear disarmament and reducing the risk of nuclear war. These initiatives include:

Challenging federal investments in nuclear modernization of the legs of the nuclear weapons triad and new nuclear weapons;
Promoting diplomatic solutions to geopolitical flashpoints in countries with nuclear weapons;
Supporting divestments from pension funds and related investments in corporations that manufacture or maintain nuclear weapons;
Actively supporting legislative efforts such as the Back from the Brink and Warheads to Windmills campaigns, as well as other federal and state initiatives that advance nuclear disarmament;
Urging the United States to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

History

Nuclear weapons are the most indiscriminate, destructive, and inhumane tools of warfare ever created. Designed for mass murder and terror, they remain an underappreciated but grave threat to human civilization. The use of even a small fraction of the current global nuclear arsenal would cause catastrophic devastation. Tens of millions of people could perish within the first hours, with up to a billion more dying in the ensuing weeks.The aftermath wouldn’t stop with human casualties. A large-scale nuclear exchange would inject massive quantities of soot and smoke into the atmosphere, triggering a global nuclear winter. This would darken skies, drop temperatures, and collapse the global food system—leaving most survivors to face starvation. The detonation of just a few thousand warheads could push humanity to the brink of extinction. In January 2025, for the sixth consecutive year, the experts at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have set the iconic Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight with midnight signifying nuclear apocalypse. Humanity has not been this close to catastrophe since the height of the Cold War.

Nuclear Arms Control

As of 2025, nine nations possess nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. Collectively, they hold approximately 12,000 nuclear warheads. The United States and Russia together account for about 88% of the global nuclear arsenal, with the U.S. maintaining around 3,748 warheads and Russia approximately 4,380 .

The United States remains the only country to have used nuclear weapons in warfare. The ongoing maintenance and modernization of nuclear arsenals by these states continue to incentivize other nations to develop their own nuclear capabilities.

Over the past decade, several key international arms control agreements have been weakened or abandoned:

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty: The U.S. formally withdrew in August 2019, citing Russian violations .
Open Skies Treaty: The U.S. completed its withdrawal in November 2020, despite opposition from allies and then-President-elect Biden .
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA): The U.S. exited the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. Efforts to revive the agreement have stalled, and the deal is effectively defunct .

While President Biden extended the New START Treaty with Russia by five years in 2021, this agreement is set to expire in 2026. No new arms control negotiations have been initiated to replace it, raising concerns about the future of bilateral nuclear arms limitations .

Despite campaign promises to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense policy, the Biden administration has continued to support a comprehensive nuclear modernization program. This includes:

Upgrading all three legs of the nuclear triad (land-based missiles, submarine-launched missiles, and strategic bombers).
Developing and deploying new low-yield nuclear warheads, such as the W76-2, which was first deployed on submarines in 2020 .
Investing in new delivery systems and warhead designs, with projected costs exceeding $1.7 trillion over the next two decades .

These developments have sparked debate over the direction of U.S. nuclear policy and its implications for global arms control efforts.

The Cost

Nuclear weapons program costs continue to skyrocket: In FY2018, $22.4 Billion of U.S. tax dollars ($ 727.24 million for Massachusetts alone) were spent on nuclear weapons. The nuclear weapons “modernization” program has increased each year and may cost as much as $1.7 Trillion. President Biden has requested $43 billion for nuclear weapons for FY 2022, almost five times the entire budget for the CDC and a 14% increase over 2020. Russia and China are following with upgrades to their systems – all this extravagant waste on weapons of mass destruction while money needed to address the climate emergency, a global vaccine program, pandemic preparedness and response cannot be found.