Episode Details

Daniel asked a simple question: if the US puts nuclear weapons in other countries, doesn't that take enormous trust? The answer is that the arrangement is deliberately built so it doesn't. This episode walks through the physics package — why the actual nuclear core is the size of a softball while the warhead around it is the size of a person — then the numbers, where SIPRI counts roughly 12,241 warheads across nine states and two respected organizations disagree by 1,500. From there it's the part almost nobody knows: 125 to 130 US B61 bombs sit in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the UK under NATO nuclear sharing, guarded by US Munitions Support Squadrons, stored in vaults built into aircraft shelter floors, and secured by Permissive Action Links whose original threat model explicitly included the host allies themselves. Episode #565068 — open it directly at myweirdprompts.com/565068