Are we closer than ever to nuclear war?

With some nuclear arsenals getting bigger and non-proliferation talks foundering, complacency about the threat of nuclear war could be misplaced. Future Tense hears from three experts about which geopolitical hotspots run the risk of turning into nuclear trouble zones.

Until the very end of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear Armageddon was always just below the surface. Then, as the iron curtain fell, there was a collective sigh of relief, with citizens of the world finding comfort in the thought that world leaders no longer had their fingers poised near any red buttons.

That comfort, though, could be ill placed. While many countries are reluctant to reveal the extent of their arsenals, making any figures an estimate, by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)'s latest count, there are currently around 15,850 nuclear weapons in the world, with approximately 1,800 of them kept in a state of 'high operational alert'.

Read the full article at Future Tense, ABC.