DefenseDecember 1, 2023
Inside the $1.5-Trillion Nuclear Weapons Program You’ve Never Heard Of
A road trip through the communities shouldering the U.S.’s nuclear missile revival
The New Nuclear Age
The U.S. is beginning an ambitious, controversial reinvention of its nuclear arsenal. The project comes with incalculable costs and unfathomable risks
Nina Berman
DefenseDecember 1, 2023
Who Would Take the Brunt of an Attack on U.S. Nuclear Missile Silos?
These fallout maps show the toll of a potential nuclear attack on missile silos in the U.S. heartland
DefenseDecember 1, 2023
Behind the Scenes at a U.S. Factory Building New Nuclear Bombs
The U.S. is ramping up construction of new “plutonium pits” for nuclear weapons
DefenseDecember 1, 2023
The U.S.’s Plans to Modernize Nuclear Weapons Are Dangerous and Unnecessary
The U.S. should back away from updating its obsolescent nuclear weapons, in particular silo-launched missiles that needlessly risk catastrophe
DefenseNovember 24, 2023
The Members of This Reservation Learned They Live with Nuclear Weapons. Can Their Reality Ever Be the Same?
The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara peoples are learning more about the missiles siloed on their lands, and that knowledge has put the preservation of their culture and heritage in even starker relief.
DefenseNovember 22, 2023
What Would It Mean to 'Absorb' a Nuclear Attack?
The missiles on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota make it a potential target for a nuclear attack. And that doesn’t come close to describing what the reality would be for those on the ground.
DefenseNovember 20, 2023
If You Had a Nuclear Weapon in Your Neighborhood, Would You Want to Know about It?
The Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota has had nuclear missile silos on its land for decades. Now the U.S. government wants to take the old weapons out and replace them with new ones, and it’s unclear how many living there know about that.
DefenseNovember 17, 2023
Just One U.S. Reservation Hosts Nuclear Weapons. This Is The Story of How That Came to Be
15 nuclear missiles deployed in underground concrete silos across the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota. It took displacement and flood to get them there.
DefenseNovember 14, 2023
What Radioactive Fallout Tells Us about Our Nuclear Future
The U.S. has embarked on the largest and most expensive nuclear build-out ever. The U.S. military says it is necessary to replace an aging nuclear arsenal. But critics fear the risks.
DefenseNovember 14, 2023
How Did Nuclear Weapons Get on My Reservation?
A member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation digs into a decades-long mystery: how 15 intercontinental ballistic missiles came to be siloed on her ancestral lands.