U.S. President Donald Trump said he has ordered the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing. The announcement came in a brief post on Truth Social ahead of his meeting with China’s Xi Jinping. Trump cited testing by other countries and said the U.S. must act «on an equal basis.»
It is not clear if the order means a return to explosive tests. The U.S. last carried out an underground nuclear test in Nevada in 1992. Experts warned that any explosive testing would raise tensions with Russia and China and risk radioactive releases.
Beatrice Fihn of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons called the idea «incredibly stupid» and said testing harms and kills people. Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association said the U.S. has no technical military or political need to test and noted it could take about three years to restart contained tests at the Nevada site.
Russia has said it would only resume explosive testing if the U.S. does so first. China urged Washington to meet its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Nevada congresswoman Dina Titus said she will introduce a bill to stop any move to restart tests.
