Obama wants 40% reduction in nuclear arsenal

A US government document revealed that the Obama administration is planning to cut the US nuclear stockpile by up to 40% by 2021.

The Department of Energy document provides details of the reductions that President Barack Obama called for on a path to eliminating nuclear weapons.

The reductions continue a trajectory of cuts that already reduced US stockpiles by about 75% since 1989.

In May the administration said it had 5,113 nuclear warheads in its stockpile.

The new document said the administration would like to reduce that number to a range of 3,000 to 3,500.

The document was presented to Congress in May and posted yesterday on the websites of the Federation of American Scientists and the Union of Concerned Scientists.