International Day Against Nuclear Testing

Ban Ki Moon at the former test site in April 2010, asking world leaders to move towards a world free of nuclear weapons.

By Annie Jennings, WAND Nuclear Security Research Fellow

In 2009, August 29^th was declared the International Day Against Nuclear Testing. This year, August 29^th also marks the 20^th anniversary of the shutdown of the former Soviet Union’s largest and most destructive nuclear weapons test site in Kazakhstan. Over its 40 year history, the Semipalatinsk site adversely affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of Kazakhstani citizens and unjustly exposed them to harmful amounts of radiation. Many were killed or marred by the over 450 nuclear blasts that took place at the testing ground.  For more on Kazakhstan tests including photos see “Slow Death In Kazakhstan's Land Of Nuclear Tests”

The fall of the Soviet Union granted a new opportunity to Kazakhstan’s President Nazarbayev. In 1991 Kazakhstan’s Semipalatinsk nuclear test site was shut down and nuclear weapons were banned from the country. This was in part a response to wide-scale protests by the Kazakhstani people calling for nuclear disarmament and a ban on nuclear testing. Similar movements took place around the world in the following years and lead to nuclear testing moratoriums in the Soviet Union and then the United States. This opened the way for negotiations on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

The CTBT is an essential non-proliferation tool.  Ending nuclear testing with this global verifiable treaty will impede nuclear-armed countries aiming to develop new, more deadly nuclear bombs and will help prevent new nuclear weapons programs from emerging. While treaty negotiations were completed in 1996 and the CTBT now has now been ratified by 154 countries, there are still nine countries, including the United States that must ratify the treaty in order for it to go into effect.  The United States has not conducted nuclear weapons test explosions since 1992 and has no need or plans to resume tests. But the Senate has yet to ratify the treaty even though doing so would allow the United States to better detect, deter and confront other countries nuclear weapons testing programs. See WAND’s CTBT Fact Sheet.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon stated on Thursday, August 25^th that “We urgently need new progress in achieving a world free of both nuclear tests AND nuclear weapons.” Nuclear non-proliferation efforts often focus on nuclear material controls and disarmament. Despite the successes in these areas it must be recognized that banning nuclear tests is no less important than reducing arms or preventing the creation and/or transfer of nuclear material. All three efforts contribute to reducing the risk of nuclear terrorism and nuclear war, and increase our U.S. and world security.

In the past 15 years, three new nuclear powers have emerged and others may be close. The framework for detecting tests and enforcing the ban is already present. However, the threat can only be reduced when the nine states required for the CTBT to go into effect ratify. The International Day Against  Nuclear Tests is a day to reflect on the benefits of the CTBT as well as a day to reflect on the consequences of not moving forward.