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Formal Title: TREATY ON UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS FOR PEACEFUL PURPOSES
Summary:
The April 1976 Peaceful Nuclear Explostions Treaty (PNET) governs all nuclear explosions carried out at locations outside the weapons test sites specified under the Threshold Test Ban Treaty (TTBT).
The PNET committed the United States and the Soviet Union: not to carry out any individual nuclear explosions having a yield exceeding 150 kilotons; not to carry out any group explosion (consisting of a number of individual explosions) having an aggregate yield exceeding 1,500 kilotons; and not to carry out any group explosion having an aggregate yield exceeding 150 kilotons, unless the individual explosions in the group could be identified and measured by agreed verification procedures.
Both the US and USSR reserved the right to carry out nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes in the territory of another country if requested to do so, but only in full compliance with the yield limitations and other provisions of the PNET and in accord with the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
The PNET set forth the agreed verification arrangements. In addition to the use of national technical means (NTM), the PNET states that information and access to sites of explosions will be provided by each side, and includes a commitment not to interfere with verification procedures.
The agreed statement that accompanies the PNET specifies that a "peaceful application" of an underground nuclear explosion would not include the developmental testing of any nuclear explosive. Such testing must be carried out at the nuclear weapon test sites specified by the terms of the TTBT, and therefore, is treated as the testing of a nuclear weapon.
The PNE Treaty entered into force on 11 December 1990.
For more in-depth information, please consult the Inventory of Nonproliferation Organizations and Regimes, which can be found on the CNS website at: http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/.
China and the PNE Treaty:
China is not a member of the PNE Treaty, a bilateral agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, China has been in de facto compliance with the threshold set by the TTBT and the PNET since its 660 kT underground test on 21 May 1992.
Although China has never conducted a PNE, during the negotiations for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), China was adamant the PNEs be allowed under the CTBT regime. As late as May 1996, China continued to press for an exemption for PNEs, but Beijing finally dropped this insistence in June 1996, although it indicated that the ban on PNEs should be temporary and should be reviewed after 10 years.
For more on the PNET and other nuclear testing issues, see:
[TEXT OF THE PEACEFUL NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONTS TREATY (PNET)]
[CHINA AND PEACEFUL NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS (PNEs)]
[CHINA AND THE THRESHOLD TEST BAN TREATY (TTBT)]
[CHINA AND THE PARTIAL TEST BAN TREATY (PTBT)]
[CHINA AND THE COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY (CTBT)]
[CHINA'S NUCLEAR TESTING PROGRAM]
[CHRONOLOGY OF TESTING-RELATED STATEMENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS]
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin
Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of
International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the
opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or
its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2007 by
MIIS.
