Is the world testing nuclear weapons again? here are the facts

After remaining dormant for three decades, nuclear weapons testing has suddenly become a major topic of discussion. Last week, Russia tested a nuclear-powered missile, but did not detonate an actual bomb. In response, President Donald Trump said this week America will resume nuclear weapons testing,

The only country to have conducted nuclear weapons tests so far in the 21st century is North Korea, and all of those tests have been underground. America last tested a nuclear bomb in 1992. Russia last conducted the test in 1990. China had stopped it in 1996.

The most spectacular nuclear tests were conducted in the open air in the late 1940s and 1950s, producing some of the most iconic and horrifying images of the nuclear age. The mushroom cloud has been a symbol of danger ever since.

The devastating effects of those tests are still being felt. The American tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific were some of the largest ever conducted. To this day, contamination from radioactive fallout makes it unsafe for anyone to live there permanently.

Most atmospheric testing ended in 1963, when the Partial Test Ban Treaty was agreed to by the US, the Soviet Union and others. It didn’t include specific ways to verify whether someone had violated it, but it proved to work. Both the US and the Soviets stopped the practice and never returned to it. However, France continued above ground testing until 1974 and China until 1980.

What caused testing to stop completely (almost)

Underground testing continued by all major powers until the 1980s, limiting the spread of radioactive pollution. However, a movement was rising to stop the practice altogether.

In 1992, the US imposed its own moratorium on testing. Then in 1996 the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was passed by the United Nations. It banned all nuclear test explosions anywhere in the atmosphere, at sea or underground.

As part of the treaty, a global monitoring system was established to detect any nuclear tests. Hundreds of sites around the world measure seismic activity, sound waves in the ocean, and radiation in the atmosphere. In this way no country is able to conduct nuclear tests secretly. This system has detected all the tests of North Korea.

However, the CTBT only goes so far. It has not officially come into force because not enough countries have ratified it. These include all the major nuclear powers and a few others: the US, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, Iran, Egypt and North Korea.

Although Russia and China have not conducted any large-scale nuclear detonations in recent years, the US State Department says it is possible that both countries have conducted smaller tests that would technically violate the moratorium.

In 2023, Mikhail Kovalchuk, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that Russia should test a nuclear weapon once a year to “intimidate the West”. But so far there has been no indication that this has happened.

So, nuclear testing is back?

At least partially, yes. Russia’s test last week was of a nuclear-powered missile that could also carry a nuclear warhead. Putin claimed that its range is almost unlimited, it cannot be tracked and it would be impossible to stop it. Russia also practiced with intercontinental ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, both of which can deliver nuclear warheads.

Then on Wednesday it came to light that Russia had tested an underwater drone that could deliver a powerful nuclear attack on a coastal city. The details look like they came from an action movie. The drone, named Poseidon, is designed to detonate near a coastline and unleash a powerful radioactive tsunami on a large urban center. Then, Putin, who first announced its existence in 2018, claimed the drone would be too fast to track or stop.

As far as the US is concerned, it depends on what Trump actually means by resuming testing. It is not yet clear whether he is referring to missile tests, similar to those in Russia, or actual nuclear explosions.

Last April, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which is responsible for the US stockpile, said it was prepared to resume underground testing if ordered, but that it had no requirement to do so.

Trump’s announcement this week also conflicts with what he said a few months ago. In August he said he wanted to negotiate with Russia and China to reduce or eliminate the nuclear threat. Trump said, “We cannot allow nuclear weapons to proliferate. We must stop nuclear weapons. The power is too great.”