The Lifecycle Costs of Nuclear Forces: A Preliminary Assessment
Abstract
This analysis provides an estimate of the total lifecycle' costs of U.S. nuclear forces. The lifecycle costs of nuclear forces can be defined in a number of different ways. This analysis considers two approaches. The first is to include the total amount of money that the United States has spent on its nuclear forces to date, plus the amount of money that it must yet spend to clean up the environmental contamination caused by past nuclear weapons programs. The second approach is to include the costs of sustaining nuclear forces of a given size over the long run, expressed in terms of average annual costs. The first approach is useful because it provides an inclusive accounting of the nuclear weapons-related costs already incurred by the United States (if not yet necessarily paid, as in the case of environmental cleanup activities), while the usefulness of the second approach is that it creates a baseline from which the costs of future U.S. nuclear forces can be estimated.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA338550
Entities
People
- S. Kosiak