WITH U.S. SET TO RESTART NUCLEAR TESTS, RECALLING REASONS FOR HALT, Pg17.

Key Highlights:

• US President Donald Trump ordered the resumption of US nuclear weapons testing after 33 years.
• Over 2,000 nuclear tests occurred between 1945 and 1996, with the US conducting 1,032 and the Soviet Union 715.
• The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was signed in 1996 to ban nuclear explosions globally.
• Russia revoked its ratification of the CTBT in 2023, aligning with the US position.
• Russia possesses approximately 5,459 warheads, while the US has about 5,177.

Detailed Insights:

• The US initiated the nuclear era in July 1945 with the Alamogordo test and bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1949.
• Since the CTBT, India and Pakistan conducted two nuclear tests each in 1998, and North Korea conducted six tests between 2006 and 2017.
• Nuclear testing stopped due to concerns about the impact on human health and the environment, particularly in the Pacific and Kazakhstan.
• Resuming testing could provide technical data on new and old nuclear weapons and serve as a strategic signal to countries like Russia and China.
• Global nuclear warhead stockpiles peaked in 1986 at over 70,000 but have been reduced to about 12,000, with Russia, the US, and China modernizing their arsenals.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Nuclear Weapon: An explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions.
• Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT): A treaty banning all nuclear explosions, for military or civilian purposes, in all environments.
• Nuclear Warhead: The explosive payload delivered by missiles, rockets, or torpedoes.