Hidden Costs: Nuclear Weapons Spending in 2024

ICAN have produced a new report entitled "Hidden Costs: Nuclear Weapons Spending in 2024." We discuss the key findings of this report from a UK perspective.

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In 2024, the nine nuclear-armed states spent more than $100 billion on their nuclear arsenals – an increase of approximately 11% from the year before. ICAN’s new report “Hidden Costs: Nuclear Weapons Spending in 2024” shows that the combined spending of the nuclear armed states – China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the UK and US – increased by nearly $10 billion from 2023 spending. The private sector earned at least $42.5 billion from its nuclear weapons contracts in 2024 alone.

The United Kingdom used 13% of its military spending on nuclear weapons. It spent $10.4 billion or $19,800 a minute on nuclear weapons. An increase of 26%, the highest increase of any of the nuclear armed countries. The UK had the largest increase in spending, jumping from £6,478,807,700 in 2023 to £8,170,913,000 in 2024.

If you take this as a total for 2024. The total spend by nuclear armed countries was $284 million per day or $3,169 per second.

The United Kingdom could have paid three times the entire

UN budget with what it spent on nuclear weapons.

UK nuclear weapon spending could have saved the lives

of 67 million people who were acutely food insecure,

including those on the brink of famine.

£118 per person was spent in 2024 on nuclear weapons. Money spent helping Nuclear Veterans through specific compensation £0.00.

"Some countries are investing in new nuclear weapons and

their means of delivery. Others are expanding their inventories

of nuclear weapons and materials. Some continue to rattle the nuclear

sabre as a means of coercion..... But, having said that, there are also

signs of hope. Last September, world leaders gathered in New York

and adopted the Pact for the Future. The Pact reconfirms a basic truth.

The nuclear option is not an option at all. It’s a one-way road to annihilation.

We need to avoid this deadend at all costs."

UN Secretary-General António Guterres

In the last five years, the United Kingdom has spent $37.8 billion on nuclear weapons. 9% of the total overall spend. Think of the uses for that money.

Despite the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) coming into force and providing victim assistance through Articles 6 and 7, the UK have not signed or ratified the treaty. They have not attended any meetings of state parties, and they have not even sent any observers.

Conclusion

It seems as if money can be found when the politicians require it. The Nuclear Test Veterans helped develop these weapons through their service, ordered to undertake tasks which exposed them, ordered to far away locations to see what the effect of a nuclear strike would be on the healthy soldier, ships, aircraft and clothing. They were expendable, they were insignificant to the MoD, they needed the data, they needed the research.

Yet today, when the UK spent £8,170,913,000 in 2024 on these weapons, it spent nothing on compensating the veterans and their families. £0.00 was allocated. They have not provided any budget for the missing medical records exercise. They continue to deny any responsibility and have not engaged with McCue Jury & Partners.

With approximately 10% of the British Nuclear Veterans left, the UK's nuclear arsenal is increasing, and a potential air-fired weapon is being introduced. A whole new generation of nuclear veterans will be born if we continue down this path of increased spending, increasing arsenals and weapons development.

LABRATS would like to thank ICAN for this incredible report and for the incredible research that was undertaken. If only the UK Government were this transparent and realised that there is only one outcome from nuclear weapons: Death. As the Nuclear Community, we know this only too well.

Download the Report