According to scientists and officials, the United States’ weapons laboratories, armed with some of the fastest computers on the planet, are peering ever deeper into the mystery of how thermonuclear explosions occur, gaining an understanding that in some ways goes beyond what was learned from explosive tests, which ended in 1992.

In a challenge to the White House, the nation’s nuclear weapons laboratories have warned Congress that federal programs to extend the life of the nation’s aging nuclear arsenal are insufficient to guarantee the viability of the weapons for decades to come.

The authors, three former Secretaries of State and a former Chairman of the Armed Service Committee, advocate that while we should remain focused on the long-term goal of a "world without nuclear weapons", the U.S. cannot allow its own nuclear deterrent to deteriorate in the meantime by not recognizing the "necessity to maintain the safety, security and reliability of our own weapons."