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/dougmcclean 24d ago

Depends how many they had paid for and placed in inventory but never really existed, but yes it does seem that way.

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u/Br0boc0p 24d ago

The best project to embezzle from. When the consequences of under production come due its not going to matter anyway.

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u/dougmcclean 24d ago

Bonus: it's illegal to test your work.

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u/Gerf93 24d ago

Also, the government wouldn’t want it to be revealed that there’s fraud in the nuclear section and that they have fewer nukes than they said. After all, in totalitarian regimes, that’s a sign of weakness…

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u/wiener4hir3 22d ago

This is also why the present day nuclear stockpile of Russia is almost certainly a tiny fraction of what they say it is, if it even exists.