US/Russia Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty

[woolfe9999]

So it looks like we have a treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear arsenals by 25%.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36050902/ns/world_news-europe/

I can see some value in this from the standpoint of improving our overall relations with Russia. However, I have never quite understood the point of nuclear arms reduction. It seems to me that reducing your arsenal to where you only have enough to blow up the world 50 times over instead of 70 times over doesn't really increase overall human security from nuclear weapons. Maybe the argument is that fewer nukes means it is less likely that the wrong people (i.e. terrorists) will some day get ahold of them?

Opinions?

- wolf

 

[senseamp]

So it looks like we have a treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear arsenals by 25%.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36050902/ns/world_news-europe/

I can see some value in this from the standpoint of improving our overall relations with Russia. However, I have never quite understood the point of nuclear arms reduction. It seems to me that reducing your arsenal to where you only have enough to blow up the world 50 times over instead of 70 times over doesn't really increase overall human security from nuclear weapons. Maybe the argument is that fewer nukes means it is less likely that the wrong people (i.e. terrorists) will some day get ahold of them?

Opinions?

- wolf

Well, if you can destroy world 50 times over instead of 70, and save 25% of the maintenance cost of the arsenal, its a good thing. Generally speaking these treaties are pretty much meaningless. Usually we just agree to do stuff we were gonna do anyways.

 

[K1052]

Nuclear weapons and their delivery systems are extremely expensive to maintain have declined substantially in strategic value since the end of the cold war. Plus all the surplus nuclear material can be downmixed into reactor fuel which keeps electricity prices down.

 

[woolfe9999]

Nuclear weapons and their delivery systems are extremely expensive to maintain have declined substantially in strategic value since the end of the cold war. Plus all the surplus nuclear material can be downmixed into reactor fuel which keeps electricity prices down.

Good point. I hadn't considered the money angle. I'm all for anything that saves us money right now.

- wolf

 

[JS80]

I wonder how much it costs to reduce and dismantle vs keeping them intact.

 

[Hacp]

I wonder how much it costs to reduce and dismantle vs keeping them intact.

Exactly You'd be worried about foreign spies scouring junkyards to steal our designs.

 

[Patranus]

Word on the street is that (according to the Russians) there is language that restricts missile defense.

Don't worry though, Obama says it doesn't.......

 

[Jaskalas]

So long as we do not open up a vulnerability.

Of course we'll never effectively address nuclear proliferation.

 

[K1052]

Word on the street is that (according to the Russians) there is language that restricts missile defense.

Don't worry though, Obama says it doesn't.......

The Russians are seemingly incapable of ever telling the truth.

I'm no Obama fan but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this unless someone can prove otherwise.

 

[BigDH01]

Exactly You'd be worried about foreign spies scouring junkyards to steal our designs.

Actually, the question itself is irrelevant. Unless you plan on paying to keep them in operational standby into eternity, there are ultimately three options. Use them, dismantle them, or discard them. There are already plenty for consumption, and discarding them isn't really an option. So (assuming we don't engage in global nuclear destruction where these warheads have little marginal utility) you can pay to dismantle them now or, in the future, pay to dismantle them plus pay maintenance every day from now until then.

 

[nonlnear]

The Russians are seemingly incapable of ever telling the truth.

I'm no Obama fan but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this unless someone can prove otherwise.

I wish I could give Obama the benefit of the doubt on treaty negotiation, but given his insularity about WIPO and others I can't trust him half as far as I can throw him. Of course he's no worse than good ol' Dubya who was part of the same machine. (Just putting in that caveat lest anyone accuse me of having partisan hate.)

 

[Hacp]

Actually, the question itself is irrelevant. Unless you plan on paying to keep them in operational standby into eternity, there are ultimately three options. Use them, dismantle them, or discard them. There are already plenty for consumption, and discarding them isn't really an option. So (assuming we don't engage in global nuclear destruction where these warheads have little marginal utility) you can pay to dismantle them now or, in the future, pay to dismantle them plus pay maintenance every day from now until then.

Or we can keep them until a better technology is invented that makes nukes obsolete, then dump them in the trash.

 

[K1052]

Or we can keep them until a better technology is invented that makes nukes obsolete, then dump them in the trash.

Holding on to many thousands of inoperable nuclear warheads is a signifigant and unnecessary security risk

 

[BigDH01]

Or we can keep them until a better technology is invented that makes nukes obsolete, then dump them in the trash.

You can't be serious.

 

[evident]

is there a way to convert nuclear warheads into energy somehow?

 

[woolfe9999]

is there a way to convert nuclear warheads into energy somehow?

According to K1052 in the third post in this thread, yes.

- wolf

 

[Patranus]

Or we can keep them until a better technology is invented that makes nukes obsolete, then dump them in the trash.

Or they could just detonate them in the desert/ocean free of charge.

 

[Patranus]

is there a way to convert nuclear warheads into energy somehow?

Requires the government to actually build nuclear power plants, something that isn't happening.

 

[K1052]

According to K1052 in the third post in this thread, yes.

- wolf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatons_to_Megawatts_Program