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U.S. Testing: White House Says Nuclear Testing Is Future Option The White House has decided to continue the U.S. moratorium on nuclear testing but retained the right to begin testing again in the future if necessary, spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 9). “We would never rule out the possible need to test to make certain that the stockpile, particularly as it’s reduced, is reliable and safe. So [President George W. Bush] has not ruled out testing in the future, but there are no plans to do so,” Fleischer said (White House briefing, Jan. 9). Money and Time to Resume Testing Reducing the time required to resume underground nuclear tests would require adding $15 million annually for three years to the Nevada Test Site budget, said John Harvey, director of the Office of Policy Planning Assessment Analysis at the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Nuclear Posture Review recommended decreasing the amount of time it would take officials to prepare for testing from two or three years to 18 months. “If we were going to a lower number, from 24 to 36 [months] to say 18 months, for example, it would probably take us two to three years to get to that point,” said Harvey. John Gordon, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, has testified that 18 months would be a reasonable amount of time to prepare for a test, Harvey said. Experts have used subcritical experiments to check nuclear weapons since the United States implemented a testing moratorium in 1992 (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2001) . “We have a very aggressive stockpile stewardship program … We feel confident we can do this without nuclear testing. But there are no guarantees,” Harvey said. Problems in the U.S. nuclear stockpile could arise that would require nuclear tests, he said. Harvey would not say if the White House would add $15 million to its upcoming budget proposal (Tony Batt, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jan. 10). Russian Reaction Meanwhile, Russia has said it supports the U.S. decision to continue the moratorium. The moratorium is “particularly important as Washington continues to obstinately refuse to ratify the agreement on the complete ban of nuclear tests [the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty],” said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Iakovenko yesterday. The importance of nonproliferation efforts and agreements is more important than ever since the United States made the “erroneous decision” to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (see GSN, Dec. 13, 2001), Iakovenko said (ITAR-Tass, Jan. 9). If the United States renews nuclear testing, Russia would probably conduct tests too, said Mark Urnov, head of the Center for Political Technologies. Reducing the countries’ nuclear arsenals would probably require testing to determine the reliability and safety of the weapons that remain, he said. Russia would probably not oppose a U.S. decision to resume tests as long as the United States continues negotiations with Russia to reduce the arsenals, Urnov said (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Jan. 10).
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