<P> In 1958, the United States Air Force had considered a plan to drop nuclear bombs on China during a confrontation over Taiwan but it was overruled, previously secret documents showed after they were declassified due to the Freedom of Information Act in April 2008 . The plan included an initial plan to drop 10--15 kiloton bombs on airfields in Amoy (now called Xiamen) in the event of a Chinese blockade against Taiwan's Offshore Islands . </P> <P> The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP) began on 31 July 2001 . The program provides compensation and health benefits to Department of Energy nuclear weapons workers (employees, former employees, contractors and subcontractors) as well as compensation to certain survivors if the worker is already deceased . By 14 August 2010, the program had already identified 45,799 civilians who lost their health (including 18,942 who developed cancer) due to exposure to radiation and toxic substances while producing nuclear weapons for the United States . </P> <P> The United States is one of the five recognized nuclear powers by the signatories of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). As of 2017, the US has an estimated 4,018 nuclear weapons in either deployment or storage . This figure compares to a peak of 31,225 total warheads in 1967 and 22,217 in 1989, and does not include "several thousand" warheads that have been retired and scheduled for dismantlement . The Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, is the only location in the United States where weapons from the aging nuclear arsenal can be refurbished or dismantled . </P> <P> In 2009 and 2010, the administration of President Barack Obama declared policies that would invalidate the Bush - era policy for use of nuclear weapons and its motions to develop new ones . First, in a prominent 2009 speech, U.S. President Barack Obama outlined a goal of "a world without nuclear weapons". To that goal, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a new START treaty on April 8, 2010, to reduce the number of active nuclear weapons from 2,200 to 1,550 . That same week Obama also revised U.S. policy on the use of nuclear weapons in a Nuclear Posture Review required of all presidents, declaring for the first time that the U.S. would not use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear, NPT - compliant states . The policy also renounces development of any new nuclear weapons . </P>

When did the nuclear stockpile of the united states peak