Russia, US threaten return to nuclear tests

Vienna, Dec. 3: The United States and Russia have both recently threatened to resume nuclear testing, alarming the international community and jeopardizing a global norm against such tests.

Experts say these threats from the world's two largest nuclear powers put pressure on nonproliferation efforts and endanger global peace and security.

"Because of other countries' testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis," U.S. President Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site at the end of October. "That process will begin immediately."

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Security Council that should the U.S. or any signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty conduct nuclear weapons tests, "Russia would be under obligation to take reciprocal measures."

Concerns about the negative effects of nuclear weapon tests grew in the 1950s when the U.S. and the Soviet Union carried out multiple powerful atomic tests in the atmosphere. As a result, a limited nuclear test ban treaty was negotiated that prohibited such tests but underground tests were still permitted.

Renewed international efforts to ban all nuclear tests resulted in the start of negotiations for a comprehensive treaty in 1994, culminating in its adoption by the U.N. General Assembly in 1996.

With 187 states having signed the treaty and 178 having ratified it, most experts believe the treaty has established a norm against atomic testing — even without formally entering into force.

For the treaty to officially take effect, 44 specific states — listed in an annex to the treaty — must ratify it. Nine of them have not yet done so.

China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the U.S. signed but didn't ratify it. India, North Korea and Pakistan neither signed nor ratified the treaty. Russia signed and ratified the treaty but revoked its ratification in 2023, saying the imbalance between its ratification and U.S. failure to do so was "unacceptable in the current international situation."

Alongside the treaty, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization was established in Vienna. It runs a global monitoring network to detect nuclear tests worldwide, operating 307 monitoring stations, using seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound and radionuclide technologies.

The organization is financed mainly through assessed contributions by its member states. Its budget for 2025 is more than $139 million.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington, said that a resumption of U.S. atomic tests would "open the door for states with less nuclear testing experience to conduct full-scale tests that could help them perfect smaller, lighter warhead designs."

This would "decrease U.S. and international security," he said. Joseph Rodgers, fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that states such as China or India stand to profit from a resumption of nuclear tests.