US may have given Russia green light to test nuclear weapons
A test conducted at a nuclear site in Nevada this week may prompt Russia to test its nuclear weapons arsenal. The United States conducted a high-explosive subsurface chemical explosion at a nuclear test site in southern Nevada, potentially prompting Russia to test its own nuclear weapons. The test was conducted to improve its ability to detect low-yield nuclear explosions around the world, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The tests were conducted after Russia's State Duma voted to withdraw ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits "any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion" anywhere in the world. The Kremlin has not commented on the test.
公開済み : 2年前 沿って Isabel van Brugen の Science
The United States conducted a high-explosive subsurface chemical explosion at a nuclear test site in southern Nevada this week, a move that could prompt Russia to test its own nuclear weapons.
Washington conducted the underground test on Wednesday to improve its ability to "detect low-yield nuclear explosions around the world," the U.S. Department of Energy, which maintains the country's inventory of more than 5,000 nuclear weapons, said in a press release.
The test, which was conducted in a tunnel of the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), used chemicals, high-explosives and radiotracers to "validate new predictive explosion models," the department said.
The tests were conducted hours after members of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, voted to withdraw ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits "any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion" anywhere in the world.
"These experiments advance our efforts to develop new technology in support of U.S. nuclear nonproliferation goals," Corey Hinderstein, NNSA's Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, said in a statement. "They will help reduce global nuclear threats by improving the detection of underground nuclear explosive tests."
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was adopted in 1996 by the United Nations General Assembly. The document was ratified by Russia but not by the United States and China.
Arms control experts have said that Moscow's withdrawal from the treaty shows that Russia, which possesses the world's largest nuclear arsenal, is ready to resume nuclear testing, but Moscow has maintained that it would not resume nuclear weapons testing unless Washington does so first.
The Kremlin has not commented on the U.S. test. Newsweek reached out to Russia's Foreign Ministry and the NNSA via email for comment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin first announced on October 5 that Russia may abandon the nuclear test ban treaty.
On Tuesday, Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on his Telegram channel that Moscow was withdrawing from the treaty because of the "irresponsible attitude" of the U.S. to global security.
"In the interests of ensuring the security of our country, we are withdrawing the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty," said Volodin, adding that while Moscow had ratified the nuclear test ban treaty in 2000, Washington had failed to do so because of its "irresponsible attitude to global security issues."
Nuclear tensions have intensified amid Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian leader has said he would be prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend Russian territory, and many fear that Ukraine recapturing its annexed Black Sea peninsula, Crimea, would be a red line for Putin.
Last month, Mikhail Kovalchuk, an ally of the Russian president, proposed that Moscow test its nuclear weapons at a nuclear test site in Novaya Zemlya, an Arctic Ocean archipelago, "at least once" to scare the West.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited the nuclear testing site in August, raising concerns that Moscow is gearing up to test its nuclear arsenal.
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トピック: Russia, Nuclear Weapons, Russia-Ukraine War, ESG