US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sunday clarified that the US has no plans to conduct nuclear explosions, at least for the time being, comments that came amid confusion over President Trump’s order for the Pentagon to start testing nuclear weapons.
“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests,” Wright told Fox News. “These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call non-critical explosions.”
Wright added that such tests involve “all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion,” but don’t involve a nuclear detonation. The tests, also known as “subcritical experiments,” have been ongoing and would be nothing new for the Energy Department.
It was unclear when Trump first issued the order in a post on Truth Social if he meant the US would restart tests that involve detonating nuclear bombs, something that the US hasn’t done since 1992, or if he meant testing nuclear-capable missiles, something the Pentagon does regularly.
The president said he directed the US War Department to “start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis” as other countries, but all nuclear-armed powers except for North Korea, which last detonated a nuclear weapon in 2017, have maintained a moratorium on detonating nuclear bombs since the 1990s. In response to Trump’s post, Russia warned that it would respond if the US broke the moratorium.
Trump could have been referring to Russia’s recent tests of a nuclear-capable missile and a nuclear-capable drone. The last known US test of a nuclear-capable missile was on May 21, when the US Air Force launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile from California for a 4,200-mile flight to the Marshall Islands.
If the Energy Department ever did move toward detonating a nuclear bomb, arms control experts say it would take about 36 months to restart such tests. The explosions would be conducted underground since the US is a party to the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits all nuclear test detonations except for those conducted underground.
