Nuclear Testing

Nuclear testing is the practice of detonating a nuclear device or weapon for experimental or demonstration purposes. Nuclear tests can be conducted in a variety of environments, though all but underground tests were banned by the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) of 1963  (Also known as The Partial Test Ban Treaty or PTBT):

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Nuclear Matters Handbook lists several purposes for historical U.S. nuclear testing:

• To “better understand nuclear physics and weapon design and functioning.” [1]
• To “determine more accurately the nature and distances associated with nuclear detonation effects.” [2]
• To “refine new designs in the development process.” [3]
• To “test the yield of weapons.” [4]
• To “confirm or define certain types of safety or yield problems found in nuclear components in weapons already fielded.” [5]
• To “certify the design modification required to correct those problems.” [6]

• To deter and demonstrate. Countries may want to deter potential adversaries by demonstrating they possess operational nuclear weapons.
• Domestic and international political reasons. Countries may use nuclear weapon tests as a way to strengthen their political positions both domestically and internationally. In the 21st century, the viability of this is debated. However, countries like North Korea that see themselves as outside of and opposed to the existing international order may see this as a viable option.
• Historically, some nuclear tests were classified as “peaceful nuclear explosions.” Many countries, including the United States and Soviet Union, hoped to use nuclear explosive devices for civil engineering purposes. This is now widely recognized as impractical due to the radioactive contamination involved.

In the many decades since the first nuclear test in 1945, eight different countries have conducted approximately 2,087 tests. [10] [11]

The negative consequences of nuclear testing can include:

• Increased regional and/or global instability. Testing can fuel nuclear arms races, as it did between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Neither country could stop testing for fear its adversary’s ongoing tests would enable it to develop superior nuclear warheads. Pakistan is widely understood to have begun nuclear testing in 1997 primarily in response to India’s testing program.
• International political and economic sanctions. India, Pakistan, and North Korea all faced international criticism and some political and economic sanctions as a response to their tests, which were widely condemned for violating the evolving norm against testing following negotiation of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
• Environmental damage and clean-up cost can be significant. For example, the United States spent $45 million to clean up just one of the 60 islands composing the Rongelap Atoll. [11] And, in another example, a 1979 French nuclear test in the Moruroa Atoll, south of Tahiti, caused an underwater landslide of “one million cubic meters of coral and rock.” [12]
• Increased human morbidity and mortality. This primarily involves significantly increased risks of cancer for affected populations, including nearby inhabitants and personnel involved with testing.

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Click on the figures below to reveal text about the effects of radiation from nuclear tests.

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