This project was completed in August 1998 and resulted in the book Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940 edited by Stephen I. Schwartz. These project pages are only occassionally updated and should be considered historical.

Cumulative costs in millions of dollars as of December 31, 1945

Site/program Then-year Dollarsa Constant 1996 Dollars
Oak Ridge (total) 1,188.35 13,565.66
—K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant 512.17 5,846.64
—Y-12 Electromagnetic Plant 477.63 5,452.41
—Clinton Engineer Works—HQ and central utilities 155.95 1,780.26
—Clinton Laboratories 26.93 307.44
—S-50 Thermal Diffusion Plant 15.67 178.90
Hanford engineer works 390.12 4,453.47
Special operating materials 103.37 1,180.01
Los Alamos Project 74.06 845.38
Research and development 69.68 795.45
Government overhead 37.26 425.29
Heavy-water plantsb 26.77 305.57
Total 1,889.61 21,570.83

Sources: Original data from Hewlett and Anderson, 1939/1946, p. 11.

a Includes capital and operations costs from 1942 through 1945. Costs adjusted using a base year of 1944. Actual costs per facility per year are apparently unknown. [Back]

b Designed and constructed by E.B. Badger and Sons and the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada in Trail, British Columbia and by E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company in Morgantown, West Virginia; Montgomery, Alabama; and Dana, Indiana. [Back]

Copyright © 1998 The Brookings Institution