Are America’s Aging Nuclear Weapons Worth Restoring?

The Cold War is over, and even the commander of America’s nuclear forces says an atomic attack by Russia is “hardly worth discussing.” “The greatest risk to my force,” he adds, “is an accident…[or] doing something stupid.” But the staff assigned to maintain weapons that could destroy much of the world has no sense of urgency—or even their own importance. The nuclear arsenal has been allowed to fall into disrepair — making it subject to possible errors or accidents of enormous destructive power. But the US still maintains more than 4000 nuclear warheads and the bombers, submarines and land-based missiles that carry them need replacement. Should the Pentagon spend up to a trillion dollars on yesterday’s weapons? We hear what life’s like in the missile silos of Montana.