27 January 2026

Humanity is 85 Seconds away from the Nuclear Doomsday!

According to the scientists of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, we are close to the Nuclear Doomsday, closer than at any point since the creation of the Doomsday Clock. In 2020 they said 100 seconds to midnight, and now very few seconds. Their warning must be taken seriously. There exist today more than 12000 nuclear weapons, of which about 4000 are "deployed", that is ready to be launched and explode at any moment (Cf. SIPRI Yearbook 2025). Each one is on average ten times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb which caused at least 200 000 deaths. Every one of us is sitting on a powder-keg.

Purported to preserve peace by deterrence, nuclear weapons don’t prevent so-called "conventional" wars. On the contrary, they arouse the arrogance of some of their owners and incite them to trample on international law, like Putin in Ukraine, Netanyahu in the Near-East or Trump all over the place. Nuclear arms obviously don’t deter terrorists. Indeed they can only fall into their hands.

Instead of uniting human forces to meet the numerous challenges we face, notably climate challenges, humankind is tearing itself apart economically, politically, militarily. Instead of respecting international law, the leaders of the nuclear States flout it. The five permanent members of the Security Council - including France - are required by Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to "pursue in good faith and bring to conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects, under strict and effective international control (International Court of Justice, advisory opinion of 8 July 1996). Their failure to ever act on that is a prime source of the current world disorder.

Only multilateral nuclear disarmament that is gradual and controlled - therefore negotiated - could enable us to ward off the catastrophe, which is otherwise irremediable. France could play a decisive role by taking the initiative in such negotiations.

Our three associations wrote to President Macron on 6 August 2025, the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, asking him to ensure that France, rather than extending her "nuclear deterrence" to the rest of Europe, instead invites the other nuclear powers within the NPT to meet to implement its Article VI. These negotiations should also include the four other states known to possess nuclear arms, and the states that host them. The President did not answer us.

It therefore seems to us urgent that the peoples of the world, beginning with the French, should grasp their own destiny. It is urgent that France’s parliamentarians grasp this question. At a time when 60% of our citizens wish for complete elimination oof nuclear weapons (poll by IFOP-ACDN, March 2025), we call on the parliamentarians to give the people they represent a proper say, and we call on citizens to demand it. Our survival depends in part on each one of us.

For ACDN, Jean-Marie MATAGNE, Président
For IDN, Bernard NORLAIN, Président
For PUGWASH-France, Nicolas DELERUE, Président

Action des Citoyens pour le Désarmement Nucléaire (ACDN)
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