Science Group Endorses House Bill to Prohibit Explosive Testing of Nuclear Weapons

President's Trump's surprising announcement that he wants to resume nuclear weapons testing and subsequent mixed signals from his administration about what that means are destabilizing already strained international relations. The president's recent remarks could prompt other nuclear powers to respond in kind, with Putin already saying Russia is prepared to resume weapons testing. That's why the Union of Concerned Scientists has endorsed a bill introduced by Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus to prohibit the United States from conducting explosive testing of nuclear weapons.

Rep. Titus said she introduced the RESTRAIN Act because President Trump's announcement "goes against the arms control and nonproliferation treaties that the U.S. has spearheaded since the end of the Cold War, and will trigger new tests by Russia and China, reigniting an international arms race."

Below is a statement from Tara Drozdenko, director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists:

"There is no good reason for the United States to resume explosive nuclear testing and it would actually make everyone in this country less safe. We have so much to lose and so little to gain from resuming testing. New explosive testing by the United States would be to make a political statement, with major consequences: it would shatter the global freeze on nuclear testing observed by all but North Korea and give Russia, China, and other nuclear powers the green light to restart their own nuclear testing programs. Russia, China, and North Korea have conducted fewer tests than the US and could use data from their tests to improve their arsenals.

"Current science allows the National Nuclear Security Administration to maintain the U.S. arsenal and to assess its safety and viability without explosive testing. The United States has conducted the most nuclear tests of any nation and has all the information it needs to maintain a secure and reliable nuclear arsenal.

"The United States has not conducted a nuclear detonation test since 1992. Even those advocating for testing acknowledge there is no scientific need to test to maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal. In fact, Energy Secretary Chris Wright recently said that the updated systems can be tested without conducting full nuclear detonations.

"To limit new weapons development in China or Russia, one of the best things the U.S. can do is maintain the taboo on testing and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. This treaty with on-site verification measures would be the best way to ensure that countries are not clandestinely testing nuclear weapons."