Global nuclear arsenal grew last year

The number of operational nuclear weapons rose slightly in 2022 as countries implemented long-term force modernisation and expansion plans, a leading conflict think-tank said yesterday, warning that the world was entering a dangerous phase.

The estimated number of warheads in military stockpiles for potential use rose by 86 to 9,576, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a statement, continuing a trend seen in the last couple of years.

"We are drifting into one of the most dangerous periods in human history," said Dan Smith, SIPRI Director.

"It is imperative that the world's governments find ways to cooperate in order to calm geopolitical tensions, slow arms races and deal with the worsening consequences of environmental breakdown and rising world hunger."

The nine nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their nuclear arsenals and several deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2022, reports Reuters.

Pointing to the stockpile of usable nuclear warheads, Smith said that "those numbers are beginning to tick up", while adding that they remain far below the more than 70,000 seen during the 1980s.

The bulk of the increase was in China, which increased its stockpile from 350 to 410 warheads, reports AFP.

India, Pakistan and North Korea also upped their stockpiles and Russia's grew to a smaller extent, from 4,477 to 4,489, while the remaining nuclear powers maintained the size of their arsenals.

Russia and the United States together have almost 90 percent of all nuclear weapons.

"The big picture is we've had over 30 years of the number of nuclear warheads coming down, and we see that process coming to an end now," Smith said.

The higher spending reported by ICAN appeared to back that up. ICAN, which was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, found that spending on nuclear weapons had risen three percent from 2021, marking the third consecutive annual increase.

The $82.9 billion spent amounted to $157,664 for every minute of 2022, it said in its report entitled "Wasted: 2022 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending".

Washington spent $43.7 billion, which was slightly less than a year earlier but was still far ahead of all other countries, the report showed.

China was next in line with $11.7 billion spent, followed by Russia at $9.6 billion --  both marking an increase of around six percent from 2021.

India meanwhile showed the most drastic spending jump, dishing out $2.7 billion -- 21.8 percent more than a year earlier -- while Britain raised its spending level by 11 percent to $6.8 billion.

The report also highlighted how arms companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons received new contracts worth just under $16 billion last year, and in turn spent $113 million lobbying governments in the United States and France alone.