US Move to Resume Nuclear Tests Sparks Global Alarm

The first USSR nuclear test "Joe 1" at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, 29 August 1949.

The lingering after-effects of nuclear tests by the world’s nuclear powers have left a devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide.

According to the United Nations, the history of nuclear testing began on 16 July 1945 at a desert test site in Alamogordo, New Mexico, when the United States exploded its first atomic bomb.

In the five decades between 1945 and the opening for signature of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996, over 2,000 nuclear tests were conducted across the globe.

The United States conducted 1,032 tests between 1945 and 1992.

The Soviet Union carried out 715 tests between 1949 and 1990.

The United Kingdom conducted 45 tests between 1952 and 1991.

France carried out 210 tests between 1960 and 1996.

China conducted 45 tests between 1964 and 1996.

India carried out one test in 1974.

Since the CTBT was opened for signature in September 1996, ten nuclear tests have been conducted:

India conducted two tests in 1998.

Pakistan conducted two tests in 1998.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016, and 2017.

On October 30, former US President Donald Trump, ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, announced on social media that the United States would resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in over 30 years — this time, on an “equal basis” with Russia and China.

The main former US nuclear test sites were the Nevada Test Site (now the Nevada National Security Site) and the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands and near Kiritimati (Christmas) Island. Other tests occurred in various US locations, including New Mexico, Colorado, Alaska, and Mississippi. The Nevada Test Site was the most active, with over 1,000 tests conducted between 1951 and 1992.

Speaking at a meeting on The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “nuclear testing threats are returning, while nuclear sabre-rattling is louder than in past decades.”

Meanwhile, a recent New York Times story titled “China Is Racing to Lead the World in Nuclear Power” recalled China’s 45 nuclear tests between 1964 and 1996.

According to reports, survivors of China’s nuclear tests, particularly ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang, suffer from radiation-related health issues that remain largely unacknowledged. “The Chinese state has actively suppressed information about the devastating consequences of its nuclear testing programme on the local population,” the report noted.

An AI-generated overview stated that China’s tests included 22 atmospheric detonations, exposing local populations to significant radioactive fallout. Despite government claims that the test site was in a “barren and isolated” area, Uyghur herders and farmers had lived there for centuries.

Independent research has documented a disproportionate rise in cancers, birth defects, leukaemia, and degenerative disorders in Xinjiang compared to other parts of China.

Alice Slater, a board member of World BEYOND War and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and a UN NGO representative for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, told IPS that China’s treatment of downwinders at Lop Nor, while alarming, is not unique. “Downwinders in Nevada, Kazakhstan, and the Marshall Islands also suffered from the effects of US, Russian, and French tests,” she said.

Slater added, “China and Russia recently renewed their joint appeal to negotiate treaties banning weapons in and from space, pledging never to be the first to use or place such weapons there. Unlike the US and Russia, which keep their nuclear bombs on missiles ready to fire, China separates its warheads from its missiles.”

She also noted that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) has entered into force after ratification by 50 countries, though none of the nuclear-armed states or their allies under the US nuclear “umbrella” have signed it.

Tariq Rauf, former Head of Verification and Security Policy at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), questioned whether the CTBT is a flawed treaty. “The CTBT lacks a substantive link to nuclear disarmament,” he said. “During the negotiations, the purpose of banning all forms of testing was progressively detached from the ultimate goal of total nuclear elimination.”

Rauf explained that the CTBT allows non-explosive forms of testing, which—given modern technological advances—may still enable the refinement and development of new nuclear weapons. “China, Russia, and the US continue to maintain active test sites, while France is the only nuclear-weapon state to have decommissioned its site,” he noted.

He also pointed out that key nations — China, Egypt, Iran, Russia, and the US — have yet to ratify the treaty, while others like DPRK, India, Israel, and Pakistan remain non-signatories. “It seems that the CTBT will never enter into force, though hopefully the moratoria on nuclear testing will continue,” he added.

Kazakhstan and the Marshall Islands are now leading efforts to establish an international trust fund for nuclear test victims under Article 6 of the TPNW, since the CTBT lacks any provision for victim assistance.

According to the UN, the CTBT bans nuclear testing everywhere — on the surface, in the atmosphere, underwater, and underground. The treaty also aims to block the development of new nuclear weapons and make it nearly impossible for non-nuclear states to acquire them.

Reacting to Trump’s announcement, US Senator Jack Reed (Democrat–Rhode Island), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said:

“Once again, President Trump has it wrong when it comes to nuclear weapons policy. Breaking the explosive testing moratorium maintained by the United States, Russia, and China since the 1990s would be strategically reckless.”

He added that such a move would likely prompt Moscow and Beijing to resume testing, and could encourage Pakistan, India, and North Korea to expand their own programmes — destabilising an already fragile global non-proliferation framework.

“The United States would gain very little from such testing and would sacrifice decades of hard-won progress in preventing nuclear proliferation,” Reed warned.

This article is brought to you by INPS Japan, in collaboration with Soka Gakkai International, which holds consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).