The world’s nine nuclear-armed powers are set to spend a total of $1,000bn dollars on the procurement and modernisation of atomic weapons programmes over the next decade, according an anti- nuclear weapons group that is endorsed by the US and Russian presidents.

As the Global Zero movement, which is campaigning for abolition of the world’s nuclear arsenals by 2030 and is endorsed by Barack Obama and Dmitry Med-vedev, the presidents of the US and Russia, prepares for a conference in London this week, it aims to underscore how the cost of nuclear weapons is becoming unaffordable for states whose defence budgets are hard pressed by the financial crisis.

According to the organisation, the nine nuclear states – the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea – are set to spend $100bn between them on nuclear programmes this year. The figure comprises the cost of researching, developing, procuring and testing nuclear weapons.