Answers + Evidence

The abolition of nuclear weapons is an idea whose time has come, and a future we must achieve. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still a lot of questions.

Fortunately, we’ve got answers. Check out our Q&A, below — and learn why abolition is getting such strong, nonpartisan support that even skeptics have to give it a fair hearing. Want to take the answers with you? Download our formatted factsheet.

If you’ve got a question that we haven’t answered, be sure to let us know by clicking the box to the right. We’ll do our best to respond — and we might even add your question to the list of Answers + Evidence.

is abolition possible?

It’s true that we can never “un-invent” nuclear weapons. But the elimination of nuclear weapons is fundamentally a supply chain problem, because the material needed for a nuclear bomb cannot be found in nature. Furthermore, only nation-states have the resources to create highly-enriched uranium and plutonium, and they cannot do so in secret, because the facilities required to make nuclear material are immense and readily identifiable from satellite surveillance. In other words, we can control the Bomb because we can control the bomb material-despite human nature.

Doing so will be challenging, requiring rigorous international safeguards and a global monitoring system-but it is possible, given the right political will. Moreover, in a world where nuclear weapons have been de-legitimized and banned-as we have already done with chemical and biological weapons-there would be little incentive to cheat, given that doing so would be a de facto declaration of war against the entire world. The conventional might of the world’s nations would easily overwhelm any nation aspiring at nuclear breakout in a disarmed world, especially given how long it takes to build a substantial arsenal.