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US Accuses Russia Of Conducting Low-Yield Nuke Tests In Violation Of Treaty
US Accuses Russia Of Conducting Low-Yield Nuke Tests In Violation Of Treaty
A new US intelligence assessment has concluded that Russia has likely been secretly conducting “very low-yield nuclear tests to upgrade its nuclear arsenal,” marking the first time Washington has accused the Kremlin of failing to strictly observe its commitments under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to the Wall Street Journal.Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, speaks to aides and military personnel in Moscow in December. PHOTO: SPUTNIK/REUTERS
The alleged tests, conducted at the remote archipelago of Novaya Zemlya above the Arctic Circle, come as the agreed upon arms-control framework between the new nations has shown signs of deteriorating, as both sides pursue “ambitious programs” to develop new nuclear weapons.
Negotiations for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which bans test explosions of nuclear weapons of any size, concluded in 1996. The treaty hasn’t been ratified by enough countries to take effect, but the world’s major powers have agreed to abide by its terms.
The treaty allows a range of activities to assure the safety and reliability of nuclear weapons as long as they don’t produce a nuclear explosive yield, including experiments involving fissile material. –Wall Street Journal
“The United States believes that Russia probably is not adhering to its nuclear testing moratorium in a manner consistent with the ‘zero-yield’ standard,” Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency planned to say in a Wednesday speech at the Hudson Institute think tank, according to his prepared remarks.
Officials have declined to reveal the size of the alleged Russian tests, nor would they say if concerns over the tests have been raised directly with Moscow.
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What Bikini Atoll Looks Like Today
What Bikini Atoll Looks Like Today
Sixty years after the nuclear tests, the groundwater is contaminated and the coconuts are radioactive. But are the coral reefs thriving?
Nearly 60 years after the last of 23 nuclear explosions in its land, air and water, Bikini Atoll again looks like the idyllic Pacific paradise it was in 1946 — a bracelet of sandy, palm-covered islets encircling an azure lagoon. But it doesn’t take long to pick up on Bikini’s enduring eeriness, says Stanford biology professor Stephen Palumbi, who visited the remote atoll for a 10-day research trip featured in Big Pacific, a documentary that aired this summer on PBS.
At one point, Palumbi was boating around Bravo Crater, a mile-wide scar blasted into the lagoon by the most potent U.S. bomb ever detonated, when the navigation system began screaming a warning. The device thought they had run aground. The boat, Palumbi says, was in 160 feet of water.
It took a moment to realize the alarm wasn’t malfunctioning. The navigation system was simply relying on maps that haven’t been redrawn since before 1954, when a bomb 1,000 times more powerful than the one that dropped on Hiroshima vaporized three islands in the lagoon, including the one where the expedition crew was.
Using the navigation device, they then boated around the perimeter of the missing coral to estimate how much mass had been hurled heavenward. “It’s equivalent to 216 Empire State Buildings being blown into the sky,” Palumbi says. “These tests are the most violent thing we’ve ever done to the ocean.”
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