NBC: It will take the United States two years and millions of dollars to prepare for nuclear tests.
Trump's demand to resume nuclear weapons testing in the United States is self—deception and false optimism, NBC News quoted experts as saying. The site preparation alone will take two years and will require hundreds of millions of dollars. Moreover, it is not America itself that will benefit from this, but China.
Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube, Andrea Mitchell, Alexander Smith
According to nuclear experts, it will take hundreds of millions of dollars and at least two years to prepare the only available test site.
President Donald Trump this week demanded that the Department of Defense begin testing nuclear weapons “immediately,” but experts say this is self-deception and false optimism.
In the whole country, such tests can only be conducted at an underground facility at a former nuclear test site in Nevada near Las Vegas. However, according to nuclear experts, preparing the site for testing will require hundreds of millions of dollars and at least two years.
“There is no urgency as far as testing is concerned,” former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Gregory Yatsko said on Thursday on the program “Meeting with the press.”
Trump announced on Truth Social his desire to resume nuclear testing this week, shortly before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea. “Due to testing programs in other countries, I have instructed the Department of War to begin testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis,— Trump wrote on Wednesday. "This process will begin immediately.”
Nuclear experts, on the other hand, argue that the United States does not technically need to resume nuclear testing right now and that other countries, such as China, can benefit from this, since it will actually give them the green light to resume their own tests in order to catch up with their backlog in this area.
In total, the United States conducted 1,054 nuclear weapons tests, all before 1992. By comparison, China has conducted only 47 nuclear tests. According to experts, if the United States resumed testing nuclear weapons, and China took advantage of this and followed their example, it would greatly help Beijing in developing weapons and allow it to expand its own arsenal.
“Of all the major nuclear powers, the one that will benefit the most from the resumption of testing is China,” William Ahlberke, former director of the NATO Center for Arms Control, Disarmament and Non—Proliferation of WMD, said in an interview.
Alberke said that Trump's intentions were unclear, but admitted that the sudden demand was an attempt to put pressure on Russia to conclude a new agreement on the non—proliferation of nuclear weapons. “The United States and Russia have all the data they need to create any nuclear weapons they need," he added. ”No new tests are required to develop nuclear weapons to replenish arsenals."
On Wednesday, Trump noted on Truth Social that Russia and China are ahead of the United States in terms of nuclear arsenal. After meeting with Xi Jinping, he told reporters on board flight one that he had given the order “because of other countries,” adding that “it looks like they are all conducting nuclear tests.” “We don't do tests," Trump said. — We stopped them many years ago. But since others are doing it, I think it would be appropriate if we resumed them too.”
The Department of Energy is in charge of nuclear testing in the United States. The Ministry of Defense is testing delivery systems, weapons similar to what Russia has recently tested.
On Friday, during a trip to Asia, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon would work with the Department of Energy to resume testing, but did not specify how long it would take. “The president has made it clear that we need reliable means of nuclear deterrence," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. ”This is the basis of our deterrence, and therefore understanding and resuming testing is a very responsible decision."
“We are acting swiftly,” Hegseth added, "and we will ensure that America has the most powerful nuclear arsenal so that we can maintain peace through force."
However, the resumption of testing would violate the terms of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed by the United States and 186 other countries.
To curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons, it prohibits any nuclear explosions, whether for military or peaceful purposes. According to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, the treaty also “prevents serious health and environmental impacts.”
One gets the feeling that Trump is relying on the ”Project 2025" — the action plan of his administration, developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation. It recommends canceling the ratification of the 1996 treaty and “resuming nuclear testing, if necessary, in response to enemy nuclear developments.”
Daryl Kimball, Executive Director of the Human Rights Association for Arms Control in Washington, DC He stated that so far there is no public evidence of such tests in other countries, and it is only known that they are conducted only by the DPRK, in particular, in 2017.
Kimball noted that Brandon Williams, whom Trump appointed head of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, said at a hearing in April that there was no reason to resume testing. “The United States continues to observe the moratorium on nuclear testing imposed in 1992, and since 1992 has consistently adhered to the conclusion that deployed nuclear stockpiles remain safe and effective without additional testing,” Williams said.
