--- description: Senior Obama Administration officials reportedly believe the U.S. nuclear arsenal can be cut by at least a third without hurting national security. Of course, believing... title: Nuclear Countdown? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb21c8f3d78cedc99/698a9ac416d88476eec458ce/128626065.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Nuclear Countdown? by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Feb 8, 2013 4:54 PM CUT  Historic image of a nuclear weapon being detonated, during the Operation Crossroads tests in 1946\. Taken from an AAF plane, the photo shows the steam cloud rising from the under-water atom bomb test known as Historic image of a nuclear weapon being detonated, during the Operation Crossroads tests in 1946\. Taken from an AAF plane, the photo shows the steam cloud rising from the under-water atom bomb test known asGetty Images/Photo Researchers RM by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Feb 8, 2013 4:54 PM CUT Senior Obama Administration officials reportedly believe the U.S. nuclear arsenal can be cut by at least a third without hurting national security. Of course, _believing_ it secretly and _declaring_ it openly are two different things. --- > “” --- …R. Jeffrey Smith reports over at the Center for Public Integrity. Full thing [_here_](http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/02/08/12156/obama-administration-embraces-major-new-nuclear-weapons-cut "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7166114/nuclear-countdown-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7166114/nuclear-countdown-2/"},"headline":"Nuclear Countdown?","datePublished":"2013-02-08T16:54:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-18T03:59:08.309Z","description":"Senior Obama Administration officials reportedly believe the U.S. nuclear arsenal can be cut by at least a third without hurting national security. Of course, believing...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7166114/nuclear-countdown-2/","keywords":["weather","Boston","snow","winter","NYC","storm","Blizzard"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb21c8f3d78cedc99/698a9ac416d88476eec458ce/128626065.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb21c8f3d78cedc99/698a9ac416d88476eec458ce/128626065.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"128626065","caption":"128626065","creditText":"Getty Images/Photo Researchers RM","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7166114/nuclear-countdown-2/","name":"Nuclear Countdown?"}}]}] ```