A senior Russian Atomic Energy Ministry official has denied that Russia is preparing its Novaya Zemlya test range to conduct explosive nuclear weapons tests, Izvestiya reported Thursday (see GSN, May 13).

“What is going on in Novaya Zemlya is not work, as prohibited by the [Comprehensive Test Ban] Treaty, to check the safety of the storage, transportation and combat readiness of the nuclear arsenal,” said Russian First Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Lev Ryabev.  “It is so-called hydrodynamic or subcritical experiments” (see GSN, May 10).

U.S. claims that Russia is preparing for tests are based on preparations made to simulate using the range for full-scale testing, Ryabev said.  This is done in order to test the infrastructure of the test range, as well as to maintain the training of Novaya Zemlya specialists, he said.

“If a political decision is made, the range is fully prepared to conduct full-blown nuclear tests,” Ryabev said (see GSN, May 6)

Although the United States has examined conducting tests of low-yield nuclear weapons (see GSN, April 5), Russia has no need to do the same, he said (Dmitriy Safonov, Izvestiya, May 23 in FBIS-SOV, May 23).

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