Zombie nukes may be in your backyard!

Nuclear disarmament began in earnest in the 1980s as the United States and the Soviet Union began to take their weapons off-line and dismantle them. President Obama has reaffirmed the US's commitment to nuclear disarmament, and in 2009 he signed a treaty within President Dmitry Medvedev limiting both the US and Russia to 1,500 active warheads. Despite that treaty, the United States still has approximately 10,000 warheads on hand.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Both United States and Soviet Union (and later Russia) long weary of the high costs of maintaining arsenals powerful enough to kill the world multiple times over, have long agreed to reduce their weapons stockpiles. In the United States, weapons have been brought off-line but, they have not all been dismantled.

See how close nukes are to your home with this interactive map.

In fact, the amount of money that the US spends maintaining its current nuclear stockpile is actually greater than any point during the Cold War. And while reliance on nuclear deterrence has greatly diminished in the past decade, the United States continues to maintain and develop technologically sophisticated nuclear weapons capabilities.

During the Cold War on average, the United States spent $35 billion per year on its arsenal. Today that figure is up to $55 billion. Critics are concerned that the increased expenditure and development of new technologies could spark a second arms race between the United States and Russia.

Meanwhile, many Americans live with nuclear weapons and facilities in their backyards, often without realizing it. Nuclear power plants pose a radiation risk, as the world became painfully aware (once again) after the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan.

Other locations serve as holding facilities while the weapons away dismantling. In these bunkers and (hopefully) secure locations, the weapons sit "zombified" which means they are off-line but could be returned to active service within hours to six months. There are more than 16,000 zombified warheads in the United States.

And still, at military facilities across the US, and in ballistic missile submarines around the globe, American nuclear weapons stand ready for use in anger despite the lack of enemies for which their use could be considered suitable.

This reality is far from trivial. The amount of money spent to maintain these weapons is five times greater than the State Department's budget, seven times more than the EPA's, and 14 times more than what the Department of Energy spends. And of course, these figures do not include classified nuclear programs.

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