Experts from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Federation of American Scientists (FAS) used Google Earth satellite imagery technology to release Nov. 9 an interactive, 3-dimensional map to track nearly 10,000 nuclear warheads remaining in the U.S. arsenal.

The satellite map offers an updated accounting of the country’s extensive nuclear inventory and enables users to virtually fly onscreen across a network of 18 military facilities in 12 states and six Europe countries.

"Fifteen years after the end of the Cold War there are still thousands of nuclear weapons at military bases stretching from Georgia’s Atlantic Coast to Washington’s Puget Sound," NRDC analyst Robert Norris said in a statement. "The stockpile is down considerably from its peak, but it is still too large."

The researchers insist that none of the locations were previously secret and that all had been known for years to house nuclear weapons. "We address that these sites are secure; they’re probably the most secure areas in the country," Elliott Negin, a spokesman for the NRDC, said.

"This provides information for the debate [by] keeping track of the stockpiles, and provide accountability for the government," Hans Kristensen, director of FAS’s Nuclear Information Project, said. "What we updated were the numbers of the stockpile and what’s been moved around. We have done this several times [dating] back to the mid-’80s."

Kristensen said the goal of the report is to "draw some attention from geeks, policymakers and reporters when they debate this. That’s what this is about, providing information for the debate."

He said his group last year received satellite images identifying a long-discussed but undetermined Chinese nuclear storage site.

"It was a submarine cave that had been known about but no one knew where it was till we put it out, together with a number of other images including sub and air bases."