{"slug":"trump-nuclear-testing-resumption-order","title":"Trump Administration Explored Resuming Nuclear Testing — First Time Since 1992","date":"2020-05-22","lastUpdated":"2020-05-22","description":"In May 2020, senior Trump administration officials discussed potentially resuming nuclear weapons testing for the first time since 1992, according to reporting in The Washington Post. The discussions were connected to arms control negotiations with Russia and China. Critics warned that any U.S. resumption of nuclear testing would undermine the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, end three decades of a global testing moratorium, and provide cover for other nuclear states to resume testing — with potentially catastrophic proliferation consequences.","summary":"The Washington Post reported in May 2020 that senior Trump administration officials — including representatives from the Defense and State Departments — discussed at a meeting whether to conduct a nuclear test explosion. The discussions were presented as leverage in arms control negotiations with Russia and China. No test took place, but the public discussion of resuming testing — after a 28-year U.S. moratorium — was treated by arms control experts as a significant destabilization of the global non-proliferation architecture. The Trump administration had already withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and signaled disinterest in extending New START.","category":"foreign-policy","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-administration-discussed-conducting-first-us-nuclear-test-in-decades/2020/05/22/a805c904-9c5a-11ea-b60c-3be060a4f8e1_story.html","title":"Trump administration discussed conducting first U.S. nuclear test in decades","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/us/politics/trump-nuclear-testing.html","title":"U.S. Officials Discussed Resuming Nuclear Testing, Officials Say","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://armscontrolcenter.org/trump-administrations-nuclear-testing-discussions-a-dangerous-step-backward/","title":"Trump Administration's Nuclear Testing Discussions: A Dangerous Step Backward","publisher":"Arms Control Association"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["nuclear","weapons","arms-control","first-term","foreign-policy","proliferation"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2019-08-02","title":"Trump withdraws from INF Treaty","summary":"The Trump administration formally withdraws the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, citing Russian violations. Russia and China had opposed the treaty. Arms control experts warn the withdrawal removes a key constraint on intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe and Asia."},{"date":"2020-05-22","title":"Nuclear testing discussions reported","summary":"The Washington Post and New York Times report that senior administration officials discussed whether to conduct a nuclear test explosion in May 2020. The discussions involved Defense and State Department representatives and were framed as potential leverage in trilateral arms control talks with Russia and China."},{"date":"2021-02-03","title":"Biden extends New START, reaffirms moratorium","summary":"The Biden administration extends the New START strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia for five years and reaffirms the U.S. commitment to the nuclear testing moratorium. The New START extension had been opposed by the Trump administration."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, D.C.","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty","article":"Article I","provision":"Each State Party undertakes not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion — the CTBT has not entered into force but represents a global norm; U.S. resumption would fundamentally undermine it"},{"statute":"Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty","article":"Article VI","provision":"States possessing nuclear weapons shall pursue negotiations in good faith on nuclear disarmament — resuming testing would violate the spirit of Article VI"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Global non-proliferation framework; populations at risk from nuclear proliferation; future generations; peoples of Pacific and Central Asian territories who bore historical nuclear testing consequences","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President; oversaw administration discussions of resuming nuclear testing","institution":"White House"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2020-05-22","summary":"Documented from initial reporting."}]}}