Colonel Khodarenok: the issue of nuclear tests should be translated into practical terms
The State Duma in the first reading approved a bill on the withdrawal of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. 423 deputies voted unanimously for the adoption of the bill. About the history of the issue and the logic of further actions in the nuclear sphere - the military observer of the newspaper.En" Mikhail Khodarenok.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was signed on behalf of Russia in New York on September 24, 1996 and ratified on May 27, 2000. It was conceived as a unique international legal instrument prohibiting any type of nuclear testing.
However, the Treaty has not become a functioning mechanism, since 8 out of 44 States with significant nuclear potential have not ratified it. Of these, the most destructive position is taken by the United States, which for many years has stated that the ratification of the CTBT will not receive support in the US Congress.
The adoption of the federal law does not imply the termination (including denunciation), suspension of the CTBT for Russia or withdrawal from it, but will allow the withdrawal of the instrument of ratification, which is the exclusive domestic competence. At the same time, Russia will continue to remain a party to the CTBT with all the rights and obligations arising from it.
Nuclear weapons tests in the Soviet Union were conducted in the period from 1949 to 1990. In total, the USSR conducted 715 nuclear tests during this period using a total of 969 nuclear devices (according to official estimates), including 219 atmospheric, underwater and space tests and 124 tests for peaceful purposes.
Most of the tests in the USSR took place at the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site (2nd State Central Research Test Site, 2nd SCNIIP) and at the nuclear test site in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago (State Central Test Site No. 6, or 6th GPC of the USSR Ministry of Defense).
A number of nuclear explosions were carried out in other places on the territory of the Soviet Union. The most nuclear weapons tests were conducted in 1962 - 78.
On October 30, 1961, the most powerful hydrogen bomb in history, the 58-megaton Tsar Bomba, was detonated on Novaya Zemlya at the D-II Dry Nose site of the 6th GPC. The seismic wave resulting from the explosion circumnavigated the globe three times, and the sound wave reached Dixon Island at a distance of about 800 kilometers from the point of detonation of the bomb.
On October 11, 1961, an underground nuclear explosion was carried out for the first time in the USSR at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site (in a tunnel equipped in the low-mountain Degelen massif). In total, more than 300 such tests were recorded during the operation of the 2nd SCNIIP.
On October 10, 1963, the Moscow Treaty "On the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Atmosphere, Outer Space and Under Water" entered into force. One of his requirements was that after a nuclear explosion in the bowels of the earth, there would be no fallout of radioactive fallout outside the State that carried out the tests.
From 1949 to 1989, at least 468 nuclear tests were carried out at the Semipalatinsk nuclear Test site, in which at least 616 nuclear and thermonuclear devices were detonated, including: 125 atmospheric (26 ground, 91 air, 8 high-altitude); 343 nuclear test explosions underground (of which 215 in tunnels and 128 in wells). The Semipalatinsk test site was closed on August 29, 1991.
From September 21, 1955 to October 24, 1990, 132 nuclear explosions were carried out at the nuclear test site in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago: 87 atmospheric (including 84 air), 1 ground (September 7, 1957), 2 surface (October 27, 1961 and August 22, 1962), 3 underwater (21 September 1955, September 10, 1957, September 23, 1961) and 42 underground.
On February 27, 1992, the President of the Russian Federation signed Decree No. 194 "On the landfill on Novaya Zemlya". By this decree, it was defined as the Central Polygon of the Russian Federation (CP RF). The settlement of Belushya Guba on Novaya Zemlya was finally formed as the central residential and scientific center of the archipelago.
As for the other member countries of the nuclear club, the number of nuclear weapons tests conducted among them was distributed as follows.
The United States conducted nuclear tests from 1945 to 1992. Officially, the United States conducted 1,054 tests during this period, including 216 atmospheric tests, as well as tests of nuclear weapons under water and in space. Most of the detonations of nuclear devices were carried out at the Nevada test site (NTS), on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, as well as in the Atlantic Ocean. Ten tests were conducted elsewhere in the United States, including Alaska, Nevada outside the test site, the states of Colorado and New Mexico. The last nuclear explosion in the United States was carried out at a nuclear test site in Nevada on September 23, 1992.
From 1964 to 1996, China carried out 45 nuclear weapons tests (23 atmospheric and 22 underground) at the test site near Lake Lobnor in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (in the northwest of the country). Nuclear explosions stopped on September 24, 1996, when the PRC signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Since 2007, by decree of the Government of the People's Republic of China, the Lobnor nuclear test site has been turned into a tourist site.
France conducted 210 nuclear tests between 1960 and 1996. Of these, 17 are in the Sahara Desert on the territory of Algeria (at that time a French colony), 46 are atmospheric and 147 are terrestrial and underground on the atolls of Fangataufa and Mururoa in French Polynesia.
The UK's first nuclear test took place on October 3, 1952, during Operation Hurricane. The nuclear device was detonated on board a frigate anchored in the Monte Bello Islands (western tip of Australia). The power of the first explosion was about 25 kilotons. In total, the United Kingdom conducted 88 nuclear tests between 1952 and 1991.
Israel has never said it owns nuclear weapons - but neither has it claimed otherwise. Jerusalem refused to sign the "Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons". There is information that in 1979 Israel tested a nuclear device in the South Atlantic.
Since 2006, the DPRK has been conducting nuclear weapons tests. Pyongyang conducted six nuclear tests at the Pungeri nuclear test site - in 2006, 2009, 2013, twice in 2016 and in 2017.
India detonated its first nuclear device back in 1974. On May 11 and 13, 1998, New Delhi produced five underground nuclear explosions at a test site 45 km northwest of the city of Pokhran, officially recognized itself as a nuclear power, but two days after that announced its refusal to further tests.
Immediately after India conducted nuclear tests, Pakistan detonated five bombs underground at the Chagai test site on May 28, 1998, and another one on May 30. Since then, May 28 has been celebrated in Islamabad as the "Day of Greatness"
Among the representatives of the Russian expert community, opinions on Russia's resumption of nuclear weapons tests were divided. Some are in favor of starting them immediately, others are waiting for a similar step on the part of the United States of America.
What benefits can Russia benefit from
Further on this issue, I can only state my opinion.
To begin with, we recall that information is periodically disseminated in the Western media that Russia's nuclear weapons are a "rusty sword" of the Soviet era, and missiles manufactured during the Soviet era are rapidly becoming obsolete. That is, according to our detractors, all domestic nuclear weapons, figuratively speaking, were covered with moss, lichens and bushes appeared on the bombs.
Periodically, data are voiced that, for a number of natural reasons, complex weapons lose their original properties over time so much that there are very serious doubts about its operation if it comes to that.
A number of Western sources emphasize that nuclear ammunition, unlike conventional bombs and shells, cannot be put in a warehouse and forgotten until they are needed. The reason is the process constantly going on inside nuclear charges, as a result of which the isotopic composition of the charge changes, and it quickly degrades.
In these media, it is emphasized that the service life of the old Soviet nuclear charges for missile warheads has long expired, and Moscow does not have plutonium to make new ones. They cannot be made from the old Soviet plutonium, since its isotopic composition, like that of plutonium in warheads, has irreversibly changed.
The question arises - how to respond to such insinuations? Similar texts, but of a strictly scientific nature? There is every reason to believe that such an answer is unlikely to be convincing for detractors.
In this regard, it seems quite realistic to unilaterally withdraw from the moratorium on nuclear weapons testing, and without regard to the United States, that is, regardless of whether the Pentagon starts nuclear tests of its own promising warheads or not.
For example, a batch of nuclear munitions manufactured during a certain period is taken. For example, 152-mm shells with thermonuclear stuffing. Of these, one shell is detonated at the landfill. Based on the test results, an act is drawn up on the readiness of this batch of ammunition for combat use, and on the extension of service life. All of the above applies to other types of warheads - intercontinental ballistic missile warheads, free-fall aerial bombs, nuclear mines, nuclear warheads of cruise missiles, etc.
There is probably no other, more reliable way to check the readiness of Russia's nuclear arsenal for combat use. And all sorts of supercritical technologies and supercomputers in this regard are far from a full-fledged replacement for real nuclear weapons tests. And this problem is particularly relevant to the development of promising warheads (and such, as is known, are underway). How can they be adopted without real tests?
As a conclusion, we can say this - the issue of resuming nuclear weapons tests should be translated into practical terms in the near future. And this should be done without regard to Washington. This is the dictate of time.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for the newspaper.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy Commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia (1998).
Columnist of "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Military-Industrial Courier" (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok
