Setting the Deadline for Nuclear Weapon Destruction under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Figures & data

Figure 1. Schematic of a modern thermonuclear warhead. (Source: International Panel on Fissile Materials).

Table 1. Materials generated from dismantling a typical nuclear warhead (Office of Technology Assessment 1993, 37).

Physics Package	Electronic Packages	Other Components
Detonators High explosives Beryllium Depleted uranium Highly enriched uranium Plutonium Lithium deuteride Plastic foam Neutron generators Tritium/deuterium gas canisters	Lead solder and other metals Thermal batteries Encapsulating material Electrical components (PCBs) Asbestos Cables	Electromechanical devices Functional mechanical devices Electronic components Electric cables Parachutes and explosives Nonfunctional mechanical parts Residuals: O-rings, seals, fasteners

Figure 2. Warhead dismantlement rates in the United States since 1980. Black bars are explicit disassembly figures. For 1996 to 2017, the numbers depicted in white were calculated by subtracting the respective disassembly numbers from figures that include the total number of assemblies and disassemblies. Gray bars are those combined figures (no separate information on disassembly available). The data from 1980 to 1994 are from United States Department of Energy (2002); 1995 to 2017 from United States Department of Defense (2017); 1996–2023 from United States Department of Energy (2018b, 21). This includes projections as of 2016 until 2023 for numbers of warheads to undergo dismantlement, evaluation, maintenance, rebuild, limited life components or repair work.

Table 2. Estimated number and dismantlement times for current nuclear warheads in the United States.

Type of nuclear weapon	Number of nuclear weapons^a	Cycle time (dismantlement work-days per weapon)^b	Throughput (number of weapons dismantled per month)^b
W78	600	3.5	6–7
W87	200	5	4–5
W76-0	46	3	7–8
W76-1	1490	3	7–8
W88	384	4.5	4–5
W80	528	3	7–8
B61-7/-11	322^c	1.5	14–15
B83		5	4–5
B61-3/-4	230	1.5	14–15
Multiple types awaiting disassembly	2385

Cycle time is the number of 8-hour work shifts required for dismantlement of a single weapon of a given type. Throughput is the estimated monthly disassembly number based on one 8-hour shift per day, and no parallel operation.

^a (Kristensen and Korda 2019c).

^b (United States Department of Energy 1997, 41).

^c Only the total for both weapon types is given in (Kristensen and Korda 2019c). It is assumed here that the total number of 322 B61-7/-11 and B83 weapons is made up of 161 weapons of each type.

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