Map: The Nuclear Bombs in Your Backyard

Look up where in the United States the Pentagon keeps its atomic weaponry.

The United States currently has 5,113 atomic warheads deployed in silos, bombers, and submarines, mostly in the continental US. That doesn’t include thousands of “zombies” being kept in reserve and a backlog of more than 3,000 warheads awaiting dismantlement. Meanwhile, we’re telling the world that we’re on the path to disarmament, even as we’re spending more on the nuclear weapons complex than we did during the Cold War.

Zoom in on the map below to find the warheads near you as well as the nuclear labs that maintain the stockpile and develop the next generation of atomic weaponry. (For reference, we’ve also included the locations of the nation’s civilian nuclear power plants.*)

Note: This map was made with 100% unclassified, public information. Even the military doesn’t hide where it keeps its missiles and bombers. See links to sourcing below.

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View Mother Jones: America’s Nuclear Facilities in a full screen map

Sources: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and Federation of American Scientists (PDF), Office of the Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear MattersNuclear Energy InstituteUnited States Nuclear Regulatory CommissionUnited States Navy.

Correction: An earlier version of this map misplaced some nuclear power plants. We have updated the map.

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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