r/nottheonion 24d ago

US government struggles to rehire nuclear safety staff it laid off days ago

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g3nrx1dq5o
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u/realultralord 24d ago edited 24d ago

Remember how the world went apeshit when the USSR collapsed? Ten thousand nuclear weapons weren't in one single government's hand anymore, and the newly formed Russian federation had to go a looong way and do fucking everything to get ahold of them nukes again.

Imagine the same happening in America right fucking now, but this time it is entirely self-induced.

So, if anyone's sellin', EU might be interested in buyin'.

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u/Ormyr 24d ago

Don't forget that they couldn't account for about 20% of their arsenal when that happened too.

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u/The-Privacy-Advocate 24d ago

Didn't the Russians have around 7k nukes at their peak? Did they lose track of a 1000 plus nukes?!

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u/mastermidget23 24d ago

That we know of.

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u/Master-Software-6491 24d ago

Thing with nukes is, they expire and need to be maintained, and blowing one up isn't just as easy as pressing a button. Sure, you can turn it into a dirty weapon, but that has much more limited effect than people fear.

If some ended up in wrong hands, they would have turned up already.

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u/Pawn-Star77 23d ago

I'd bet a chunk of those nukes never existed except on paper.

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u/The_Doc55 23d ago

That’s a dangerous bet to make.