Obama Plans to Cut up to 40 Percent of Nukes

A government document reveals that the Obama administration is planning to cut the U.S. nuclear stockpile by up to 40 percent by 2021.

The Energy Department document provides details of the reductions that President Barack Obama has called for on a path to eliminating nuclear weapons. The reductions continue a trajectory of cuts that already has reduced U.S. stockpiles by about 75 percent since 1989.

In May the administration said that it had 5,113 nuclear warheads.

The new document says 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 Tuesday on the websites of the Federation of American Scientists and the Union of Concerned Scientists.