President Donald Trump reaffirmed Saturday that the U.S. would resume nuclear testing, but he did not immediately answer a question about whether that would include underground nuclear tests that were common during the Cold War.
“You’ll find out soon, but we’re going to do some testing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to Palm Beach, Florida, when asked about underground nuclear testing.
“Other countries are doing it. If they (are) going to do it, we’re going to do it, okay?”
Trump made the surprise announcement on social media while aboard his Marine One helicopter en route to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping for a trade negotiating session in Busan, South Korea.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump was referring to nuclear explosion tests, which would be conducted by the National Nuclear Security Administration, or to flight tests of nuclear-capable missiles.
During a trip to Malaysia, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said resuming tests was a “very responsible way” to maintain the nuclear deterrent, adding that the Pentagon would work with the Department of Energy.
“We’re moving quickly,” Hegseth said.
No nuclear power – except North Korea most recently in 2017 – has conducted explosive nuclear tests in the past 25 years.
Representative Dina Titus, a Democrat from Nevada, the site of the US nuclear test site, introduced legislation on Friday that would ban a resumption of explosive nuclear tests and block funds for them.
Titus, the author of a history of U.S. nuclear testing, said a resumption of such tests would prompt Russia and China to do the same and “put Nevada back in the crosshairs of toxic radiation and environmental destruction.”
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