More than a dozen US senators on Wednesday urged President Donald Trump to abort plans for a resumption of nuclear weapons testing, a call that came as Russian President Vladimir Putin directed his senior officials to draft proposals for possible new nuke tests in response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe write to you today to express grave reservation about any action to resume nuclear weapons testing,\u201d 14 Democratic senators led by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a letter<\/a> to Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cWe request that you personally provide clarification,\u201d the lawmakers added. \u201cThe decision to resume nuclear weapons testing would be geopolitically dangerous, fiscally irresponsible, and simply unnecessary to ensure the ability of the United States to defend itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) \u2013 who signed the letter \u2013 also introduced emergency legislation<\/a> last week aimed at preventing Trump from resuming nuclear weapons tests.<\/p>\n Although no country is known to have tested a nuclear weapon since North Korea last did so in 2017, Trump last month ordered<\/a> the Pentagon to prepare for a resumption of reciprocal testing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country,\u201d Trump falsely<\/a> wrote on social media. \u201cBecause of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis.\u201d<\/p>\n TASS<\/em> reported<\/a> Wednesday that Putin instructed the Russian Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, intelligence agencies, and civilian bureaus to submit proposals \u201con the possibility of preparing for nuclear weapons tests\u201d in the event that other countries resume testing.<\/p>\n Russia has not tested a nuclear weapon in its modern history. The former Soviet Union\u2019s final nuclear test took place in 1990 and the successor Russian state has adhered to a moratorium ever since.<\/p>\n Last week, Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-Nev.) introduced<\/a> a bill to prohibit new US nuclear weapons testing. Titus accused Trump of putting \u201chis own ego and authoritarian ambitions above the health and safety of Nevadans.\u201d<\/p>\n Supporting Titus\u2019 bill, Tara Drozdenko, director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement<\/a> Wednesday that \u201cthere is no good reason for the United States to resume explosive nuclear testing and it would actually make everyone in this country less safe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have so much to lose and so little to gain from resuming testing,\u201d she continued. \u201cNew explosive testing by the United States would be to make a political statement, with major consequences: It would shatter the global freeze on nuclear testing observed by all but North Korea and give Russia, China, and other nuclear powers the green light to restart their own nuclear testing programs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe United States has not conducted a nuclear detonation test since 1992,\u201d Drozdenko noted. \u201cEven those advocating for testing acknowledge there is no scientific need to test to maintain the US nuclear arsenal. In fact, Energy Secretary Chris Wright recently said that the updated systems can be tested without conducting full nuclear detonations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo limit new weapons development in China or Russia, one of the best things the US can do is maintain the taboo on testing and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty,\u201d she added. \u201cThis treaty with on-site verification measures would be the best way to ensure that countries are not clandestinely testing nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n The United States and Soviet Union came dangerously close to nuclear war<\/a> on multiple occasions during the Cold War, most notably amid the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis<\/a> and, later, during then-President Ronald Reagan\u2019s first administration in the early 1980s<\/a>.<\/p>\n Weeks after becoming the first country to develop nuclear weapons in 1945, the United States waged the world\u2019s only nuclear war, dropping atomic bombs on the defenseless Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killing hundreds of thousands of people, mostly civilians.<\/p>\n