Nine nuclear-armed states spent roughly $73 billion on their nuclear arsenals last year! That’s $138,699 per minute! These numbers come from the latest investigation of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), published today: “Enough is Enough: 2019 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending.”
That estimate includes costs to maintain current nuclear warheads and nuclear delivery systems and to develop and build new ones.
In its research, ICAN also found that the nine nuclear-armed states spent an estimated $7.1 billion more on their arsenals in 2019 than they did in 2018. And nuclear expenditures are projected to grow substantially in the next decade as these countries continue to develop and build new nuclear weapons systems. You can read (and also share) the report at this link: www.icanw.org/report_73_billion_nuclear_weapons_spending_2020
So how do we stop these countries from wasting billions of dollars while putting the entire world at risk? With ICAN's findings, citizens in nuclear-armed states can take their governments to task for choosing to put these weapons of mass destruction over healthcare, education, or combating climate change. You can help us spread the word by reading and sharing the report.
These citizens can encourage their countries to join the rest of the world. In 2017, the majority of the world’s countries rallied behind the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, sending a clear signal to the nine nuclear-armed-states (and to the banks, universities and other institutions tied to nuclear weapons production) that nuclear weapons are unacceptable and will soon become illegal under international law.
