Trump Order to ‘Start’ Nuclear Testing Raises Questions for DOE
The Nevada Test Site, now known as the Nevada National Security Site, where nuclear testing last took place in the 1990s.
Don Barrett / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Energy Secretary Chris Wright says he does not think the U.S. will resume explosive nuclear tests after President Donald Trump declared his intent to begin testing nuclear weapons on an “equal basis” with other countries. Trump has not specified what kind of testing he has in mind, but his comments have been widely interpreted to mean that he intends to resume explosive nuclear tests. The U.S. has not carried out such tests since 1992.
“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests,” Wright said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday. “These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call noncritical explosions. So you’re testing all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion,” he added.
The Department of Energy is already working on these tests as part of efforts to modernize the United States’ nuclear stockpile, Wright said. Asked to clarify whether DOE is testing existing weapons or developing new ones, Wright said the testing would be on new systems so that “replacement nuclear weapons are even better than the ones they were before.” He reiterated that testing would be “non-nuclear explosions.”
DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration has recently conducted subcritical nuclear tests, which involve implosions that do not create a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. In recent decades, nuclear weapons testing carried out by DOE has also relied on computer simulations. DOE recently announced plans for a new supercomputer that will support such testing and is building a major new plutonium imaging device.
Trump made his statement about nuclear testing via a Truth Social post last Wednesday, shortly before he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The post also followed a series of announcements from Russia that it tested two of its six experimental nuclear-weapons projects, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile and torpedo . Trump did not refer to any particular testing activities, though said China’s arsenal is on pace to be “even” with the U.S. within five years.
“Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately,” the post said.
Trump’s statement prompted a flurry of commentary on the status of international nuclear testing treaties, such as the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), that have restrained explosive tests of nuclear warheads for many years. The U.S. is a signatory to the treaty, but has not ratified it. Russia ratified the treaty in 2000, but revoked its ratification in 2023.
Trump reiterated his desire to resume nuclear testing in an interview with CBS on Friday, saying, “If we have ‘em, we have to test ‘em, otherwise you don’t really know how they’re gonna work.” He remained vague, however, about the type of testing he was referring to, saying that “we’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do” and then referring to Russia and China doing testing that “you just don’t know about,” adding that “certainly North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing.”
Russia, China , and Pakistan have denied conducting nuclear testing that violates CTBT norms. The U.S. government accused Russia of restarting low-yield nuclear tests in 2019 and speculated that China may have conducted low-yield testing in 2020, but these claims have been debated by nuclear weapons experts.
The feasibility of the U.S. resuming explosive nuclear testing has also been called into question. Earlier this year, Trump’s pick to head the National Nuclear Security Administration, Brandon Williams, said during his Senate nomination hearing that he “would not advise testing” nuclear weapons above the criticality threshold. Resuming explosive testing in the U.S. could take years, would be expensive, complex, and require expertise that the government has lost, Paul Dickman, a retired senior policy fellow at Argonne National Lab, told The Washington Post.
The U.S. last conducted such tests in Nevada decades ago, and the suggestion that explosive testing might resume in the state has sparked concern among politicians such as Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who tweeted that Trump’s comments contradict the “commitments I secured from Trump nominees — and the opinion of administration officials who certify our nuclear stockpile — who’ve told me explosive nuclear testing would not happen & is unnecessary.” Sen. Rosen said she would “fight to stop this” if testing resumed. Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) introduced a bill last week that would prevent the U.S. from carrying out explosive nuclear tests.
The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), which monitors nuclear testing through its International Monitoring System, reports that North Korea is the only country to have exploded nuclear weapons in recent years, producing underground blasts that were picked up by seismic monitoring stations. Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association nonprofit, said in an online statement that “no country, except North Korea, has conducted a nuclear test explosion in this century, and even they have stopped.”
“Accusations that Russia and China may have conducted very low-yield but super-critical nuclear weapons tests are unsubstantiated and highly-debatable, and such tests provide little value for advancing the capabilities of their nuclear programs. Such concerns are far better dealt with by ratifying the CTBT and securing the option for short-notice on-site inspections and/or other forms of confidence-building measures,” Kimball said.
