The United States still has no technical need to resume explosive nuclear testing, although the White House could decide to conduct such tests for “other reasons” of a political nature, said US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, TASS reported yesterday.
“This year again, the leaders of the weapons laboratories and the Stratcom commander again certified our weapon stockpile as reliable from the non-explosive testing we do. I think our arsenal is ready to go,” Wright emphasized, testifying before the US Senate Armed Services Committee. “But there may be other reasons for which the commander-in-chief may want to engage in a nuclear test,” he added.
NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams noted that the department conducts “more than a thousand” non-explosive tests on its nuclear stockpile every year. “I guarantee you that our adversaries have no question about how well our weapons work,” Williams said. In his view, the question of nuclear testing is “a multi-dimensional problem” with multiple components. “There is a technical component to it, and I support the secretary’s statement, but there is a geopolitical and a political component to it as well,” he said. “All of those decisions rest in the hands of the president, as they should because all of it relates to deterrence.”