In 1968, the United States and Russia signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which committed them to eliminating their nuclear weapons "at an early date" - but 40 years later their combined stockpiles contain over 10,000 warheads. President Barack Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev have just signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which together with the 2010 US Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), lays out steps to reduce nuclear arsenals. But at the speed disarmament is moving, it will be decades before the weapons become history.

The only way they will ever become history is if some other tech advance makes them impotent ...