L5. All the Warheads in the U.S. Nuclear Arsenal. This field of ceramic nose cones represents, in miniature, all the warheads in the U.S. nuclear arsenal by the end of the Cold War. Estimates set that total at 25,000. We see in this picture the vertical proliferation of nuclear weapons within the arsenal of a single superpower. We stand on the threshold of a horizontal proliferation of nuclear weapons worldwide as plutonium becomes more available. Many warheads have been dismantled in the US and Russia, but the long-term disposition of the plutonium extracted from the warheads has not yet been determined. Plutonium has a half-life of 24 000 years. There is no practical way to destroy it once it has been created. “Amber Waves of Grain” installation by Barbara Donachy, Boston Science Museum, Massachusetts. 13 February 1985.
These photographs by Robert Del Tredici are protected by copyright and are available for purchase as high-quality digital prints on archival paper or as silver gelatin prints from bdeltredici@hotmail.com.