how nuclear inspectors can inspect other countries nuclear weapon inventories and uranium refining abilities in a way that can be trusted and not just staged by the inspected country

Question

how nuclear inspectors can inspect other countries nuclear weapon inventories and uranium refining abilities in a way that can be trusted and not just staged by the inspected country

In: 1404

Answer 1

Very simplified: Nuclear weapons are not something you keep as a surprise. You WANT other countries to know you have them.

Nuclear weapons are also very expensive to build and keep around considering you really don’t want to ever use them.

So having more nukes than other countries think you have is needlessly expensive and having fewer nukes than they think you have is risky if they ever do try and test you.

This is why mutual inspections are a great deal for both sides and you have very little reason to deceive each other.

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As an aside since this is likely motivated by Russia suspending the New START agreement. This is entirely a posturing move by Russia. The deal that was in place already allowed for waaaaaay more nukes than Russia or the US would ever need in an all out war with each other. Building even more than that would be a really dumb waste of money and nothing more. This is Russia saying “We can build more nukes now” and the appropriate response to this is: “Sure! Knock yourself out!”