Despite a “decades-long moratorium” on blowing up nuclear weapons in the U.S., the administration of President Donald Trump has considered detonating one just to show Russia and China that we can, according to The Washington Post, something that could help raise nuclear tensions around the world.
The proposal apparently came up during a May 15 meeting of senior officials representing the top national security agencies. “Administration officials [said] that Russia and China are conducting low-yield nuclear tests — an assertion that has not been substantiated by publicly available evidence,” the Post writes.
The reasoning behind the proposal? The Trump administration wanted to use the show of might to put the U.S. in a better negotiating position to regulate China and Russia’s nuclear arsenals. Trump’s top officials believe China is building up its nuclear arsenal and that Russia has conducted forbidden tests of intermediate-range missiles — both countries deny these claims.
While one anonymous official said the proposal is “very much an ongoing conversation,” another person said, “A decision was ultimately made to take other measures in response to threats posed by Russia and China and avoid a resumption of testing.”
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said that the U.S. detonating a nuclear weapon would basically signal to other countries that it’s okay to do the same thing. While over 184 nations have signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the U.S. never has: Obama said he wanted to but never did, and the Trump administration doesn’t.
Right now the U.S. uses computer simulations to conduct hypothetical nuclear tests.