This workshop explores how and why the United States spent more than $7 trillion to build 70,000 nuclear weapons during the Cold War, conduct more than 1,000 nuclear tests, and deploy and maintain a worldwide network of delivery systems, sensors, and communications assets capable of unleashing (or defending against) unimaginable destruction. Key developments and turning points in the history of the U.S. nuclear weapons program will be discussed, and the substantial human health, environmental, and economic costs of the testing, production, and deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons will be quantified and assessed, along with the effectiveness of efforts to keep secret large parts of the program. The ongoing and anticipated future costs of U.S. nuclear weapons will also be discussed. Basic knowledge of nuclear weapons and the Cold War is helpful but not essential.