infographic

Global nuclear policy is a multifaceted and complex issue. Using infographics, we bring nuclear weapons policy down to Earth.

  • Our Community Makes Us Strong

    Earlier this year, we asked our followers to tell us a little bit about themselves and what aspects of Ploughshares Fund’s work matter most to them. I’d like to share some of the highlights.

    October 1, 2014 - By Peter Fedewa

  • Rolling Back the Tide

    It started with one explosion in 1945. An explosion unlike any the world had ever seen. The first nuclear weapon, detonated by the United States, launched an era of nuclear proliferation that persists to this day. With the end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons are increasingly irrelevant, but the threat they represent is still very real. The tide of proliferation has ebbed. Now we have the chance to roll it back to end the threat of nuclear weapons forever.

    July 1, 2014 - By Peter Fedewa

  • Don't Look Now, But the Iran Deal is Working

    In September 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood at a United Nations' podium with a cartoon bomb warning that the world had to stop Iran before it completed “the second stage of nuclear enrichment necessary to make a bomb.”

    April 21, 2014 - By Joe Cirincione

  • Your Nuclear Weapons Taxpayer Receipt

    No one likes tax day. The paperwork. The anticipation of a return. The shock of owing more. None of it is fun. Least of all paying for wasteful programs that do little to nothing to keep the American people safe. Like upgrading bombs that cost more than their weight in gold. Or building new nuclear weapons that will never be used. It turns out, on average, each of us paid about $81.50 in nuclear weapons taxes in 2013.

    April 15, 2014 - By admin

  • Dirty Budgets Threaten Obama's Daring Vision

    On April 5th 2009, Barack Obama gave an unprecedented speech in Prague, in which he dedicated his presidency to laying the ground work for a world without nuclear weapons. “As the only nuclear power to have ever used a nuclear weapon,” he said, “the United States has a moral responsibility to act.” Today, an out-of-control nuclear weapons budget threatens that vision.

    April 7, 2014 - By Amanda Waldron

  • A Big Deal for Nuclear Security

    The recent first-step nuclear deal with Iran will strengthen U.S. security by verifiably halting Iran’s program and setting a path for rolling it back through comprehensive nuclear negotiations.  So why are some in Congress opposing the deal, and what outcome do they expect if they scuttle diplomacy?

    It’s important to remember what the U.S. gets with this deal, versus the alternative.

    January 15, 2014 - By Joel Rubin

  • Meet the Budget Busting B61 Nuclear Bomb

    The U.S. is poised to spend $11.6 billion to upgrade a handful of nuclear bombs - with each bomb costing more than twice its weight in gold. The bombs were originally put in Europe to roll back a Soviet land invasion. With the Cold War over, the costly bomb upgrades would rack up more debt while adding no benefit to our security. 

    Why are the bombs still around? What else could the U.S. buy with the money? How much gold are we talking about? See the infographic below.

    July 9, 2013 - By Ben Loehrke

  • World Nuclear Stockpile Analytics

    This year we saw a nearly 16% decrease in the number of nuclear weapons in the world. This is great progress but there is far more work for us to do.

    December 21, 2012 - By Peter Fedewa

  • What's more expensive than a hurricane? Nuclear weapons.

    There's no doubt: Hurricane Sandy has left her mark. The damage the storm left to basic infrastructure on the East Coast will take billions of dollars and months (if not years) to repair. But, hurricane damage costs pale in comparison to the spending our country is already planning to dole out to America's nuclear weapons and related programs. 

    November 2, 2012 - By admin

  • A Golden Mistake

    The B61 life extension program gets a gold medal for setting records as the most expensive nuclear warhead in U.S. history. It also gets another ignominious recognition – costing more than its weight in solid gold.

    July 30, 2012 - By Ben Loehrke