Estimated Minimum Incurred Costs of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Programs, 1940-1996*

Total: $5,821.0 billion

in billions of constant 1996 dollars

*Includes average projected future-year costs for nuclear weapons dismantlement and fissile materials disposition and environmental remediation and waste management. Total actual and estimated expenditures through 1996 were $5,481.1 billion.

Source: Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940 (Brookings Institution Press, 1998)

Copyright © 1998 The Brookings Institution