This report evaluates claims stemming from an announcement by President Trump in 2025 that the U.S. could build a near-100% effective missile defense system within three years at a cost of $175 billion. However, the report finds such effectiveness is unrealistic and far more costly.
The United States and Russia possess some 88% of the world’s 12,120 nuclear weapons—5177 and 5459, respectively. This fact sheet outlines what a likely scenario would be if there was a U.S.-Russia nuclear war in which they deployed most of their strategic nuclear weapons.
On August 6th and 9th 1945, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing an estimated 210,000 people instantly or within the first five months. This fact sheet lays out the scale of destruction by distance from the epicenter using the model of a single 20 megaton bomb.
Throughout the nuclear weapons era, the world has had countless nuclear close-calls and near-misses–as a result of human error, hubris and miscalculation, escalating wars and armed conflicts, and technology failures. This fact sheet covers what factors drive the danger of nuclear war.
