The author argues for combining a public health approach with nuclear disarmament, stressing the grave dangers to humanity from the mere existence of nuclear weapons.

The high alert levels for U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces are more political statements carried over from the Cold War than military necessities for the 21st century, according to a new study from the East-West Institute.

President Obama plans deep new cuts in the U.S. nuclear arsenal at a time when the government faces a 15-year backlog of warheads already waiting to be dismantled and a need for billions of dollars in new facilities to store and dispose of the weapons' plutonium.

India has asserted it would not sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty - a top non-proliferation priority of the Obama administration - unless the world moves "categorically towards nuclear disarmament in a credible time-frame."

A group of international leaders, including former heads of state and top diplomatic and defense officials, launched a new effort yesterday to eliminate all nuclear weapons.

In advance of the election, some of Washington's most influential national security thinkers have argued for a dramatic shift in U.S. policy, to actively pursue the eventual elimination of all nuclear weapons from the Earth.

The approach of the next U.S. president has prompted calls from some prominent defense experts to work toward eliminating the nuclear arsenals held by the United States and other nations.

With both U.S. presidential candidates stating that their goal is to "eliminate nuclear weapons", Ronald Bailey takes a look at the possibility of this occurring.

The US and Russia may have promised to take 9000 nuclear warheads out of service but they have no idea of how to dispose of the plutonium they contain, experts say. Programmes for locking the plutonium into radioactive waste or burning it in nuclear reactors are being abandoned by the Bush administration because of their high cost. The default option, storage, could leave the plutonium more vulnerable to being stolen and made into bombs by terrorists.

The United States intends to make unilateral cuts in its nuclear arsenal rather than engage Russia in protracted arms negotiations, a senior Pentagon official said Tuesday.