President Donald Trump said this week that he wants the Defense Department to begin testing nuclear weapons "immediately," but experts say that's wishful thinking.
The U.S. has only one location where such testing could take place, an underground facility at the former Nevada Nuclear Test Site near Las Vegas. Preparing the site for testing would require hundreds of millions of dollars and at least two years, nuclear experts said.
"There is no immediacy when it comes to testing," Gregory Jaczko, former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said on "Meet the Press" Thursday.
Trump announced his desire to conduct nuclear tests in a Truth Social post shortly before his meeting this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
"Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis," Trump wrote Wednesday. "That process will begin immediately."
Some nuclear weapons experts argue that the U.S. has no technical need to restart nuclear testing and that it could actually wind up benefitting countries like China, because it would in effect give them license to resume testing to advance their less-developed nuclear programs.
The U.S. has conducted 1,054 nuclear weapons tests overall, but none since 1992. China, by comparison, has conducted 47 nuclear tests. If the U.S. were to resume nuclear weapons testing, and China used that as an opening for doing the same, it could help Beijing with weapon design and allow them to expand their own arsenal, experts say.
“Among the big nuclear weapon states, there’s one country that would benefit the most from resumed testing — that’s China,” William Alberque, former director of NATO’s Arms Control, Disarmament and WMD Non-Proliferation Centre, said in an interview.
Alberque said Trump’s intentions are unclear, but the sudden directive could be an attempt to pressure Russia into a new nonproliferation agreement.
“The U.S. and Russia have all the data they need to build whatever nuclear weapon they need," he added. "There’s no new science in nuclear weapons design” when it comes to their arsenals.
Trump noted in the Wednesday Truth Social post that Russia and China are gaining on the U.S. in the number of nuclear weapons in their arsenal.
After his meeting with Xi, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that his order “had to do with others,” adding that “they seem to all be nuclear testing.”
“We don’t do testing," Trump said. "We’ve halted it years, many years ago. But with others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do also."
Nuclear explosive testing in the U.S. would be carried out by the Department of Energy. The Defense Department would handle the testing of vehicle systems – the weapons used to deliver nuclear weapons, similar to what Russia has carried out recently.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday while traveling in Asia that the Pentagon would work with the Energy Department to resume testing, but he did not acknowledge the time it would take to do so.
“The president was clear, we need to have a credible nuclear deterrent,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. “That is the baseline of our deterrence, and so having an understanding and resuming testing is a pretty responsible, very responsible way to do that."
“We’re moving out quickly," Hegseth added, "and America will ensure that we have the strongest, most capable nuclear arsenal so that we maintain peace through strength."
Resuming testing would violate the terms of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, signed by the U.S. and 186 other countries.
It bans all nuclear explosions, whether for military or peaceful purposes, with the goal of curbing all nuclear arms proliferation. According to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, the treaty also “prevents the serious health and environmental impacts of nuclear tests.”
Trump appeared to be drawing a page from Project 2025, a blueprint for his administration's agenda that was crafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation. It recommends rejecting the ratification of the 1996 treaty and pushing for conducting nuclear tests “in response to adversary nuclear developments if necessary.”
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C., said there is no public evidence yet of any other country conducting such tests, and the only country known to do so is North Korea. It carried out a test in 2017.
Kimball pointed out that Brandon Williams, the Trump-appointed head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, stated during testimony in April that there was no reason to resume testing.
“The United States continues to observe its 1992 nuclear test moratorium; and, since 1992, has assessed that the deployed nuclear stockpile remains safe, secure and effective without nuclear explosive testing,” Williams testified.
