Trump’s Nuclear Test Rhetoric and Reality
Trump’s Nuclear Test Rhetoric and Reality Arms Control Today December 2025 By Daryl G. Kimball Nuclear testing is a dangerous vestige of the past that fueled the arms race and the development and deployment of new and more deadly types of nuclear weapons. From 1945 to 2017, the world’s nine nuclear-armed states conducted more than 2,000 nuclear detonations, including more than 500 in the atmosphere, which spread deadly radioactive fallout downwind and across the globe. “Divider” was the final U.S. nuclear explosive test on Sept. 23, 1992 before the Congressionally-mandated test moratorium took effect. (Photo credit: U.S. Department of Energy) The United States has not conducted a nuclear explosive test since 1992, and today, along with 186 other countries, it is a signatory to the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which bans all nuclear test explosions. U.S. support for the CTBT was crucial to securing the indefinite extension of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 199...
