Stockpile: The Inside Story of Nuclear Weapons

Everyone knows about Los Alamos - the secret city in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was developed. But few people have even heard of Arzamas-16, home of the Russian bomb. Located 200 miles east of Moscow, Arzamas-16 is so secret that it has never appeared on any Soviet map. For nearly half a century, Soviet and American nuclear physicists worked in isolation from each other: partly in fear, partly in admiration, and with the ultimate goal of mutual destruction. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, new fears led to an extraordinary collaboration between scientists at Los Alamos and Arzamas-16 who, with US funding, are working desperately to contain the new nuclear threat: the instability of ageing weapons, and the theft of nuclear material. Stephen Trombley gained access to Arzamas-16 and Los Alamos and went behind the fence with the scientists who have created the latest generation of nuclear weapons, to learn first-hand of the new and mortal dangers we face. See more