by Reality Check » Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:12 am
The Federation of American Scientist ( FAS ) is the source for the over 17,000 number.
The FAS report was referring to warheads, both current warheads and historical warheads, that may, or may not, still exist in some form, such as the fissionable material removed from historical warheads, which may, or may not, still be highly enough enriched to build a new nuclear warhead out of.
The FAS report was also counting tactical, short range, and strategic nuclear warheads as one and the same.
The Spiegle article misquoted the FAS article calling the over 17,000 number "nuclear weapons" which is not what the FAS was reporting.
According to the Federation of American Scientists 16,200 of those 17,000 plus warheads exist in the United States and Russia.
That would leave approximately 1,000 tactical, short range, and strategic warheads spread among China, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India and Israel.
Both the number of warheads in China and the number of tactical nuclear warheads in Russia, appear to be on the low side, using the assumptions FAS uses regarding what should be counted as a warhead.
The FAS report can be found here:
http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/n ... tatus.htmlThe Federation of American Scientist ( FAS ) is the source for the over 17,000 number.
The FAS report was referring to warheads, both current warheads and historical warheads, that may, or may not, still exist in some form, such as the fissionable material removed from historical warheads, which may, or may not, still be highly enough enriched to build a new nuclear warhead out of.
The FAS report was also counting tactical, short range, and strategic nuclear warheads as one and the same.
The Spiegle article misquoted the FAS article calling the over 17,000 number "nuclear weapons" which is not what the FAS was reporting.
[color=#0000BF][b][size=115]According to the Federation of American Scientists 16,200 of those 17,000 plus warheads exist in the United States and Russia.[/size][/b][/color]
[b][size=115][color=#0000BF]That would leave approximately 1,000 tactical, short range, and strategic warheads spread among China, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India and Israel.
Both the number of warheads in China and the number of tactical nuclear warheads in Russia, appear to be on the low side, using the assumptions FAS uses regarding what should be counted as a warhead. [/color][/size][/b]
The FAS report can be found here:
[url]http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/nuclearweapons/nukestatus.html[/url]