The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

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 should be considered historical.

New research on arms control and nuclear weapons is being conducted by the Brookings Arms Control Initiative.

Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940

• Atomic Audit Table of Contents
• Errata for Atomic Audit
• Photo gallery
• Department of Defense Future Years Program Historical Database

“The Hidden Costs of Our Nuclear Arsenal,” Press Briefing, June 30, 1998

• Press release
• Overview of Project Findings—Stephen I. Schwartz
• The Economic Implications of Nuclear Weapons—William J. Weida
• A Historian’s Assessment of Atomic Audit—David Alan Rosenberg

News, Commentary, and Reviews of Atomic Audit

• “Flimsy Accounting on Nuclear Weapons,” New York Times, July 9, 1998
• “Atomic Accountant,” UC Santa Cruz Review, Winter 1999

Charts:

• Estimated Minimum Incurred Costs of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Programs, 1940-1996
• U.S. Government Historical Obligations by Function, 1940-1996
• Expenditures for U.S. Nuclear Weapons Materials Production, 1948-1996
• Expenditures for U.S. Nuclear Weapons Research, Development, Testing and Production, 1948-1998
• Global Nuclear Weapons Tests, 1945-1998
• Global Nuclear Stockpiles, 1945-1996
• U.S. and USSR/Russian Strategic Offensive Nuclear Forces, 1945-1997
• Average Unit Acquisition Costs for Strategic Nuclear Delivery Vehicles
• How Much Was Enough? Official Estimates of Nuclear Weapons Requirements, 1957-1995
• Biographies for the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project Steering Committee
• The Costs of the Manhattan Project
• 50 Facts About U.S. Nuclear Weapons
• What U.S. Nuclear Weapons Delivery Systems Really Cost
• Top 10 Least Accountable U.S. Nuclear Weapons Programs
• Estimated 1998 Spending on U.S. Nuclear Weapons and Weapons-Related Programs
• The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Production and Naval Nuclear Propulsion Complex
• Bombs in the Backyard: Bases and Facilities with Significant U.S. Nuclear Weapons or Naval Nuclear Propulsion Missions

Send comments and questions to Stephen I. Schwartz, Director, U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project