The United States conducted a nuclear weapons test in a manner that did not involve actual explosions. The test, resumed after 2 years and 8 months since September 2021, is seen as a response to Russia, which is waging war in Ukraine and raising the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons in combat. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under the U.S. Department of Energy announced that they successfully conducted a subcritical experiment at the Nevada National Security Site on the 14th, to collect important data on nuclear weapons. Subcritical experiments confirm the level of compression of nuclear materials without reaching the point of initiating a chain reaction that causes an explosion. Since these experiments do not trigger actual explosions, as prohibited by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), they are not typically considered forbidden.
The United States has conducted a total of 34 subcritical nuclear tests, including this latest one, since halting actual nuclear explosion tests in 1992. During the Obama administration, four experiments were conducted, and during the Trump administration, three subcritical tests took place.
This is the third subcritical test conducted under the Biden administration. Particularly, the timing of this test just before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to China on the 16th and 17th serves as a strong warning to both China and Russia.
Putin declared the suspension of Russia’s participation in the New START arms control treaty with the United States on February 21 last year, three days before the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24. At that time, Putin pressured the U.S. by stating that even though the U.S. had not announced any upcoming nuclear tests, “if the U.S. prepares for a new nuclear test, we will do the same.”
Moreover, in November last year, Putin withdrew Russia’s ratification of the CTBT. The CTBT, signed in 1996, is an international treaty that prohibits all nuclear tests in all environments, including the atmosphere, outer space, underwater, and underground, regardless of military or peaceful purposes. After signing the treaty in 1996, Russia ratified it in 2000 shortly after Putin became president. However, countries like the U.S., China, Egypt, Israel, and Iran have signed but not ratified the treaty. Russia warned that withdrawing from the treaty was in response to the U.S. taking similar actions and that they would conduct nuclear tests if the U.S. were to conduct one that would trigger an explosion.
The NNSA underscored that this experiment was in compliance with the moratorium on nuclear explosive tests since 1992 and met the zero-yield standard of the CTBT. However, concerns have arisen about this test potentially accelerating nuclear competition between the U.S. and Russia, especially since the Biden administration successfully developed a new tactical nuclear bomb called the B61-13 nuclear gravity bomb and there has been continuous approval of nuclear weapon-related budgets in Congress.