West Palm Beach, Florida – Conducting new tests of the US nuclear weapons system President Donald Trump Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Sunday that the agreement would not include nuclear explosions.
It was the first clarification from the Trump administration since the president took to social media last week to say he had “directed the War Department to begin testing our nuclear weapons on an equal footing.”
“I think the tests we’re talking about now are tests of the system,” Wright said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Briefing” program. “These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call non-critical explosions.”
Wright, whose agency is in charge of the testing, added that the planned test includes “all the other parts of the nuclear weapon to make sure they present the proper geometry and that they prepare for a nuclear explosion.”
Confusion over Trump’s intent began minutes before a crucial meeting in South Korea with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump resorted to his platform, “Truth Social,” and seemed to indicate that he was preparing to ignore the decades-old American ban on this matter. Testing of the country’s nuclear weapons.
Later that day, as he returned to Washington, Trump was coy about whether he really meant to say he was ordering the resumption of explosive testing of nuclear weapons – something only North Korea has done this century – or calling for testing of US systems capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, something much more routine.
he It remained vague on Friday when reporters asked him if he intended to resume underground nuclear explosion tests.
“You’re going to find out very soon,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday as he headed to Florida for the weekend.
The US military regularly tests its missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, but it has not detonated such weapons since 1992. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which the United States has signed but not ratified, has been adhered to since its adoption by all countries that possess nuclear weapons, with North Korea being the only exception.
Trump announced his plans to conduct nuclear tests after Russia announced it New atomic powered test A nuclear-capable underwater drone and a new aircraft Nuclear-powered cruise missile.
Russia responded to Trump’s comments about nuclear testing by emphasizing that it had not tested its nuclear weapons and adhered to the global ban on nuclear testing.
However, the Kremlin has warned that if the United States resumes testing its weapons, Russia will do so as well — an intensification that would bring back Cold War-era tensions.