Nuclear Test

US, Russia threats to resume nuclear tests raise global security fears

The United States and Russia have both recently threatened to resume nuclear testing, alarming the international community and jeopardising a global norm against such tests. Experts say these threats from the world's two largest nuclear powers put pressure on nonproliferation efforts and endanger global peace and security. Because of other countries' testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis, US President Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site at the end of October. That process will begin immediately. Moscow quickly responded. Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Security Council that should the US or any signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty conduct nuclear weapons tests, Russia would be under obligation to take reciprocal measures. Here's a look at what a resumption of nuclear testing could mean. The treaty established a norm against nuclear ...

Work underway on Putin's instructions about nuclear tests: Sergei Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday said President Vladimir Putin's latest instructions about studying the feasibility of resuming nuclear tests is being worked on. During his Security Council meeting on November 5, at which Lavrov was absent, Putin instructed the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defence, the intelligence services, and civilian agencies to submit proposals on the possibility of preparing for nuclear weapons tests by Russia if the US were to walk out of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) moratorium on nuclear tests. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accepted for implementation the instruction given by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Security Council meeting on November 5; it has been accepted for implementation and is being worked on, Lavrov was quoted as saying by official news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti. The public will be informed of the results, Lavrov was quoted by the Russian agencies. According to Lavrov, Moscow has

Russia may resume nuclear tests after Trump's call to restart US testing

Trump recently said he had ordered his defence department to restart nuclear weapons testing on an 'equal basis' with Russia and China

Putin asks top officials for proposals on preparing nuclear tests

Speaking at a meeting with his Security Council, Putin reaffirmed his earlier statement that Moscow will only restart nuclear tests if the US does so first

Is Pakistan actively testing nuclear weapons? Here's what Trump claims

US President Donald Trump has claimed that Pakistan is among countries conducting nuclear weapons tests, as he defended his decision to restart US testing after more than 30 years

Trump's nuclear tests will not involve explosions, says US energy secretary

New tests of the US nuclear weapons system ordered up by President Donald Trump will not include nuclear explosions, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said. It was the first clarity from the Trump administration since the president took to social media last week to say he had instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. I think the tests we're talking about right now are system tests, Wright said in an interview on Fox News' Sunday Briefing. These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call noncritical explosions. Wright, whose agency is responsible for testing, added that the planned testing involves all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion. The confusion over Trump's intention started minutes before he held a critical meeting in South Korea with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump took to his Truth Social platform and appeared to suggest he w

Best of BS Opinion: The night, the noise, and the need for balance

Today's pieces look at public debt and economic stability, trade as strategic leverage, the continuing unemployment crisis in Bihar, and how pollution has turned the Milky Way's light into an irritant

Former Atomic Energy Commission chairman MR Srinivasan dies at 95

MR Srinivasan, pioneer of India's nuclear power programme and key figure behind Apsara and Madras atomic projects, passed away in Udhagamandalam at 95

No radiation leak from Pak nuclear facility, says atomic energy watchdog

The IAEA response negating any radiation leak in Pakistan follows social media buzz that claimed Indian forces hit nuclear sites of the country during 'Operation Sindoor'

World stands at the cusp of '3rd nuclear age': Britain's armed forces head

The head of Britain's armed forces has warned that the world stands at the cusp of a third nuclear age,' defined by multiple simultaneous challenges and weakened safeguards that kept previous threats in check. Admiral Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff, said Britain needs to recognise the seriousness of the threats it faces, even if there is only a remote chance of Russia launching a direct nuclear attack on the UK or its NATO allies. While the Cold War saw two superpowers held at bay by nuclear deterrence and the past three decades were characterised by international efforts to restrict the spread of nuclear weapons, the current era is altogether more complex, Radakin said Wednesday in a speech to the Royal United Services Institute. We are at the dawn of a third nuclear age' he said. It is defined by multiple and concurrent dilemmas, proliferating nuclear and disruptive technologies and the almost total absence of the security architectures that went before. Challenges face

Iran to hold nuclear talks with three European powers in Geneva on Friday

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei later said the deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany and Britain would take part in the talks

US should sever ties with China, restart nuclear tests: Trump's ex-NSA

There's no guarantee Trump would adhere to the policy proposals on China that O'Brien has laid out

Nuclear-armed nations deepening reliance on their nuclear weapons

The world's nine nuclear-armed states continue to modernise their nuclear weapons as the countries deepened their reliance on such deterrence in 2023, a Swedish think tank said on Monday. We have not seen nuclear weapons playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War, said Wilfred Wan, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's weapons of mass destruction programme. Earlier this month, Russia and its ally Belarus launched a second stage of drills intended to train their troops in tactical nuclear weapons, part of the Kremlin's efforts to discourage the West from ramping up support for Ukraine. In a separate report, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN, said the nine nuclear-armed states spent a combined total of USD 91.4 billion on their arsenals in 2023 equivalent to USD 2,898 per second. The Geneva-based coalition of disarmament activists won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. The group said that figures sh

Navigating a MAD world

Mutually assured destruction is the cornerstone of strategies to prevent nuclear war, but the leaders in charge of the codes hardly inspire confidence

1998 nuke tests ensured 'credible minimum deterrence', says Pak PM Sharif

Commemorating the 26th anniversary of Pakistan's first successful nuclear tests, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said it encapsulates the arduous yet remarkable path of the country towards establishing a "credible minimum deterrence. Pakistan conducted six nuclear tests on May 28, 1998, inside a deeply dug tunnel in the remote Chaghi mountain of Balochistan province, as a tit-for-tat response to India's nuclear tests in the same month at the Indian Army's Pokhran Test Range. Pakistan's nuclear tests, state-run Radio Pakistan, said was conducted in response to the regional security dynamics and one that ensured that Pakistan's defence capabilities were robust and credible. Pakistan became the seventh nuclear nation in the world and the first Muslim state in 1998 having the nuclear arsenal in its defence stockpile to exercise deterrence. Designated as Youm-e-Takbeer, translated as the day of greatness' or the day of God's greatness', and observed annually with national zeal

N Korea tests underwater nuclear attack drone in response to rivals' drills

North Korea said on Friday it had tested a purported underwater nuclear attack drone in response to a combined naval exercise between South Korea and the United States and Japan this week, as it continues to blame its rivals for raising tensions in the region. The alleged drone test came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared he would scrap his country's long-standing goal of a peaceful unification with South Korea and that his country would rewrite its constitution to define South Korea as its most hostile foreign adversary. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years with Kim accelerating weapons demonstrations and threatening nuclear conflict and the US and its Asian allies responding by strengthening their combined military exercises. North Korea's alleged nuclear attack drone, which the North first tested last year, is among a broad range of weapon systems demonstrated in recent years as Kim expands his arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons. .

Putin signs bill revoking Russia's ratification of nuclear test ban treaty

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a bill revoking Russia's ratification of a global nuclear test ban, a move that Moscow said was needed to establish parity with the United States. Putin has said that rescinding the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, also known as the CTBT, would mirror the stand taken by the U.S., which has signed but not ratified the nuclear test ban. Both houses of the Russian parliament voted last month to revoke Moscow's ratification of the bill. The CTBT, adopted in 1996, bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world, but the treaty was never fully implemented. In addition to the U.S., it has yet to be ratified by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran and Egypt. There are widespread concerns that Russia may resume nuclear tests to try to discourage the West from continuing to offer military support to Ukraine. Many Russian hawks have spoken in favor of a resumption of the tests. U.S. Secretary of State Antony

Russian Upper House revokes ratification of global nuclear test ban

The upper house of the Russian parliament on Wednesday revoked the ratification of a global nuclear test ban in what Moscow has describes as a move to establish parity with the United States. The Federation Council voted to endorse a bill rescinding the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, also known as the CTBT. The bill will now be sent to President Vladimir Putin for final approval. The lower house approved the bill last week. The vote follows a statement from Putin, who warned earlier this month that Moscow could revoke its 2000 decision to ratify the bill to mirror the stand taken by the US, which has signed but not ratified the nuclear test ban. The CTBT, adopted in 1996, bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world but the treaty was never fully implemented. In addition to the US, it is yet to be ratified by China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, Iran and Egypt. There are widespread concerns that Russia could move to resume nuclear tests to t

Was offered $5 bn by Bill Clinton to not conduct nuclear tests: Sharif

Hours after his homecoming, Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif highlighted the achievements of his tenure and recalled how he gave a "befitting reply" to India's atomic explosion by conducting nuclear tests in 1998 despite being offered USD 5 billion by then US president Bill Clinton not to do so. Sharif, 73, returned home on a special flight from Dubai, ending a four-year self-imposed exile in the UK, to head his party and try to secure a record fourth term in the general elections expected to be held in January. Wearing a light blue kurta pyjama, a maroon muffler and a black coat, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo flew in from Dubai to Islamabad on the 'Umeed-e-Pakistan' chartered plane at around 1:30 pm local time. He reached Lahore, considered a stronghold of his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, to address a massive rally, I am meeting you today after several years, but my relationship of love with you is the same. There is no difference in

UN watches Japanese lab prepare fish samples from damaged nuclear plant

Scientists from the UN nuclear agency watched on Friday as Japanese lab workers prepared samples of fish collected at a seafood market near the Fukushima nuclear plant to test the safety of treated radioactive wastewater released from the damaged plant into the sea. The discharge of wastewater began on August 24 and is expected to continue for decades. It has been strongly opposed by fishing groups and neighbouring countries, including China and Russia, which have banned all imports of Japanese seafood. Japan's government and the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, say the discharge is unavoidable because wastewater storage tanks at the plant will be full next year. They say the water produced by the damaged plant is treated to reduce radioactivity to safe levels, and then diluted with massive amounts of seawater to make it much safer than international standards. On Friday, a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency watched as fish samples were prepared a