"Trump's cudgel": how many nuclear weapons are in the world and why they stopped testing 30 years ago
Reuters journalist Guy Faulconbridge explained why nuclear tests stopped at one time, why they were conducted and who in the world has nuclear weapons. The United States ushered in the nuclear era in July 1945 by testing a 20-kiloton atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico, and then dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to force Japan's surrender in World War II.
The Soviet Union stunned the West by detonating its first nuclear bomb just four years later, in August 1949. According to the United Nations, in the five decades from 1945 to 1996, when the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was signed, more than 2,000 nuclear tests were conducted: 1,032 by the United States and 715 by the Soviet Union. Great Britain conducted 45 tests, France - 210, and China - 45. According to the UN, since the conclusion of the Treaty, 10 nuclear tests have been conducted.
India conducted two tests in 1998, Pakistan also conducted two tests in 1998, and North Korea conducted tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016 (twice) and 2017. The United States last tested in 1992, China and France in 1996, and the Soviet Union in 1990. Russia, which inherited most of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, never did. Concerns have been raised about the impact of the tests — above ground, underground and underwater — on human health and the environment.
The Western tests in the Pacific Ocean and the Soviet tests in Kazakhstan and the Arctic had a significant impact on both the environment and the population. Activists say millions of people in both the Pacific region and Kazakhstan have been contaminated by nuclear testing and have been facing health problems for decades.
Thus, after the explosions of nuclear bombs in the framework of Operation "Crossroads" on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, lawsuits were filed against the United States and eight other states possessing nuclear weapons. As of 2014, claims from Marshall Islanders were still pending. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty prohibits nuclear explosions by anyone and anywhere. Russia signed it in 1996 and ratified it in 2000. The US signed the 1996 treaty, but has not ratified it.
In 2023, President Vladimir Putin formally withdrew Russia's ratification of the CTBT, bringing his country into line with the United States. The tests give an idea of what the new nuclear weapons are capable of, as well as whether the old weapons work. In 2020, the Washington Post reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump was discussing the issue of conducting a nuclear test.
In addition to providing technical data, such a test would be perceived in Russia and China as a deliberate assertion of US strategic power. Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned that if the US resumes nuclear tests, Russia will follow suit. Putin said that the global nuclear arms race has already begun.
The exact number of warheads each country has is kept secret, but according to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia has a total of about 5,459 warheads, while the United States has about 5,177. These are deployed, stored, and decommissioned warheads. The Arms Control Association, based in Washington, D. C. , says the U. S. has a stockpile of 5,225 nuclear warheads, while Russia has 5,580.
The world stockpile of nuclear warheads peaked in 1986 at more than 70,000, most of them in the Soviet Union and the United States, but has declined since then. to about 12,000, with the greater part still in Russia and the United States. According to the Federation of American Scientists, China is the third largest nuclear power with 600 warheads, followed by France with 290, the United Kingdom with 225, India with 180, Pakistan with 170, Israel with 90, and North Korea with 50.