Disarmament

300 nuclear warheads

is the total cap of nuclear weapons announced by President Sarkozy on 21 March 2008. France is the first Nuclear Weapons State to have published the amount of its entire nuclear arsenal.

1992

The year France stopped plutonium production for nuclear weapons ; similar measure in 1996 for highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.

1998

The year France, with the United Kingdom, ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. To date, France, the United Kingdom and Russia are the only nuclear powers to have ratified the CTBT.

-33%

In 2008, France announced the reduction by a third of the airborne component of its nuclear deterrence force.

2 billion euros

is the amount France has already spent in dismantling its former facilities producing fissile material for nuclear weapons. The total cost of dismantlement is estimated to be €6 billion which corresponds to the cost of two aircraft carriers.

0

France no longer has nuclear testing facilities or facilities producing fissile material for nuclear weapons.

0.2%

is the percentage of France’s GDP in budgetary efforts allocated to nuclear deterrence (it was 0.48% on average for the period 1960-200, reaching a maximum of 1.06% in 1967).

-50%

The nuclear deterrence budget has been halved over the past 20 years.

-50%

France has halved its nuclear arsenal in ten years.

75 million euros

is the total cost of the denuclearization of the Albion plateau completed on 25 February 1998.

-50%

France has halved the number of its means of delivery since 1985.

16

CTBT monitoring stations are to be set up by the French Atomic Energy Commission in national territory. Under the co-operation agreements with foreign States, the French Atomic Energy Commission is establishing 8 other stations worldwide.

5 million euros

is France’s annual contribution to the budget of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) or nearly 6% of the Organization’s overall budget.