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Formal Title: TREATY BANNING NUCLEAR WEAPON TESTS IN THE ATMOSPHERE, IN OUTER SPACE, AND UNDER WATER [AKA: LIMITED TEST BAN TREATY (LTBT); MOSCOW TREATY]
Summary:
The 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) prohibits nuclear weapons tests "or any other nuclear explosion" in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water. While not banning tests underground, the PTBT does prohibit underground nuclear explosions that cause "radioactive debris to be present outside the territorial limits of the State under whose jurisdiction or control" the explosions were conducted.
The Treaty was initialed on 25 July and formally signed at Moscow on 5 August 1963. It entered into force on 10 October when the three original signatories (US, UK, USSR) deposited their instruments of ratification.
The Treaty is of unlimited duration. The Treaty has not been signed by France or China.
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 PTBT:
China is not a signatory to the PTBT, and denounced the treaty in 1964, calling it "a big fraud" designed to "consolidate the nuclear monopoly" of the US, USSR, and UK and legitimize underground nuclear testing. China was preparing for its first nuclear explosion when the PTBT was signed, and alleged that a US representative to the Moscow signing of the Treaty admitted that one of the primary purposes of the Treaty was to prevent China from acquiring a nuclear capability.
However, although China is still not a signatory of the PTBT, it last conducted an atmospheric nuclear test on 16 October 1980 (the last country to do so). On 21 March 1986, China announced a permanent halt to atmospheric testing, but did not promise to dismantle the technical capability to conduct such tests.
[Sources: Vipin Gupta, "The Status Of Chinese Nuclear Weapons Testing," Jane's Intelligence Review, January 1994, p. 34; Nuclear Weapons Databook, Volume 5, p. 335; Banning N. Garrett and Bonnie S. Glaser, "Chinese Perspectives On Nuclear Arms Control," International Security, Winter 1995/96, p. 47]
For more on the PTBT and China's nuclear testing program, see:
[CHINA'S NUCLEAR TESTING PROGRAM]
[CHINA AND PEACEFUL NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS (PNEs)]
[CHRONOLOGY OF TESTING-RELATED STATEMENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS]
Other international nuclear testing agreements:
[CHINA AND THE COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY (CTBT)]
[CHINA AND THE THRESHOLD TEST BAN TREATY (TTBT)]
[CHINA AND THE PEACEFUL NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS TREATY (PNET)]
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.
