Washington, Dec 3:
The United States is not preparing any nuclear tests at the Nevada National Security Site despite Russia’s claims to the contrary, US National Nuclear Security Administration chief Jill Hruby said, adding that Washington had “nothing to hide” with regard to its experiments at the location.
On October 10, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said there were signs of the US preparing or at least having prepared “to the last” nuclear tests in Nevada. On October 18, the US conducted an explosive underground experiment at the site where it had previously tested nuclear weapons, but denied it was a nuclear test. The experiment came hours after the Russian lower house passed a bill revoking the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
“We need to be clearer about what we’re doing because we have nothing to hide and we’re not preparing for an underground [nuclear explosive] test [at the Nevada site],” Hruby said in an interview with the Arms Control Association, published on Friday.
At the same time, the senior official admitted the US used the site in Nevada for various experiments, adding, however, that those were chemically explosive tests aimed at improving the country’s ability to detect possible nuclear tests by other nations. Washington also conducts subcritical experiments that do not produce a sustained fission reaction to make sure that existing nuclear weapons are in a serviceable condition and mining new tunnels at the site to improve the infrastructure and install diagnostic equipment, Hruby said.
The US administration is currently mulling several ways to increase transparency with regard to its activities in Nevada, including by releasing video footage from the site, she stated.
The CTBT is a multilateral accord that bans nuclear weapon test explosions and all other nuclear explosions for civilian and military purposes. The treaty was adopted in 1996 but has never gone into effect, as it would require ratification by all 44 countries that had nuclear power or research reactors at the time it was signed. Of the nine recognized nuclear powers, only Russia, France and the United Kingdom have signed and ratified the treaty. The US, in particular, signed the treaty in 1996, but the Senate refused to provide its advice and consent in 1999, thereby blocking its ratification.
On November 2, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a Bill into Law to revoke the ratification of the CTBT. The Kremlin said that the move did not mean the immediate start of nuclear tests in Russia and was implemented to mirror any possible actions by the US.
