Nuclear weapons testing sites in US, China and Russia have all been newly expanded – as expert says it ‘hints’ the countries could resume detonations

The United States, China and Russia have all recently expanded their underground nuclear bomb testing sites, a development that is worrying non-proliferation experts who fear a new global arms race.

Satellite images shared with DailyMail.com on Friday show significant construction work in recent years at the Nevada National Security Site near Area 51 in the US, China’s Lop Nur test site and Russia’s Novaya Zemlya nuclear test site.

While there is no evidence that a nuclear test is imminent at any of the three sites, experts fear that the three powers are moving closer to resuming underground nuclear testing for the first time since 1996.

“There really is a lot of evidence that we’re seeing that suggests that Russia, China and the United States could resume nuclear testing,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an adjunct professor at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. told CNNwho first reported the images.

“It is very clear that all three countries, Russia, China and the United States, have invested a lot of time, effort and money not only in modernizing their nuclear arsenals, but also in preparing for the kind of activities that would require are for a test. ,” he added.

Lewis analyzed satellite images of recent construction work at the three test sites and provided them directly to CNN and DailyMail.com.

The resumption of underground nuclear testing by the world’s three largest nuclear powers would mark a major break from a de facto moratorium that has lasted nearly three decades.

Russia’s last nuclear test took place in 1990, under the rule of the former Soviet Union. The last American test took place in 1992 and China’s in 1996.

The 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty effectively ended underground testing in the three countries.

The US and China both signed but never ratified the treaty, while Russia did ratify it.

Since then, only ten nuclear weapons tests have been conducted worldwide: two by India and Pakistan in 1998, and six by North Korea from 2006 to 2017.

According to Lewis, accelerated construction activity at test sites in the US, China and Russia is a warning sign of a new nuclear arms race.

“The threat of nuclear testing arises from the extent to which it accelerates the growing arms race between the United States on the one hand and Russia and China on the other,” Lewis told CNN.

‘The consequences of this are that we spend enormous amounts of money, even though we are not becoming safer.’

Although Russia has ratified the 1996 nuclear testing treaty, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed without evidence in February that the US was preparing to resume nuclear tests and promised that Moscow would respond in kind.

“If the United States conducts tests, we will do so. “No one should entertain the dangerous illusion that global strategic equality can be destroyed,” Putin said.

William Courtney, an adjunct senior fellow at the RAND Corporation and a former U.S. nuclear negotiator for the USSR, called Putin’s comments “ominous.”

“A long-standing tactic of the Kremlin is to accuse others of doing what it intends to do,” he wrote in a speech. commentary. “A frustrated Putin could see nuclear tests as the next step on the escalation ladder.”

In August, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made an official visit to Novaya Zemlya, raising awareness of the nuclear test site and raising fears that Moscow plans to resume nuclear testing.

Satellite images from Russia’s Novaya Zemlya test site show significant construction activity over the past two years.

Shipping containers, large trucks and several new buildings under construction can be seen in images from June.

Novaya Zemlya is located on a remote archipelago in the far north of Russia, with tunnels bored deep into the mountains for underground testing.

It was first used by the USSR to conduct nuclear tests in 1955, and was the site of hundreds of nuclear explosions until the last test in 1990.

Meanwhile, increased activity has also been observed at China’s Lop Nur testing site, located in western China’s Xinjiang province.

The nuclear test base, located beneath the arid mountains surrounding a dry lake bed, was established in 1959.

China conducted its first nuclear test there in 1964, and conducted a total of 47 above-ground and underground tests until the last in 1996.

Satellite images in recent years show the excavations of a new, fifth underground tunnel at the site, as well as the construction of new roads.

Lewis told CNN that a comparison of images taken in 2022 and 2023 shows that a rubble pile is growing at the site, indicating the expansion of underground tunnels.

New construction has also taken place in the main administration and support area and a new storage space was built in 2021 and 2022.

In the US, the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) was established in 1951 to test nuclear weapons, and was the site of at least 100 atmospheric tests and 828 underground explosions.

The NNSS is part of Nevada’s massive government-controlled testing and training area and is located not far from the highly secretive Groom Lake Air Force facility known as Area 51.

Commercial satellite images shared by Lewis show that an underground facility at the site, known as the U1a complex, was significantly expanded between 2018 and 2023.

The NNSS website says the U1a complex is a laboratory “where scientists conduct subcritical and physics experiments to obtain technical information about the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.”

“U1a is the only place in the country where subcritical experiments with plutonium in weapons-relevant quantities can be conducted,” the website adds.

Subcritical testing involves detonating the chemical explosives to apply high pressure to nuclear materials, ensuring they still function properly, without causing a self-sustaining nuclear reaction.

A spokesperson for the NNSS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com.

The National Security Administration (NNSA), a division of the US Department of Energy that oversees the site, told CNN it is “recapitalizing infrastructure and scientific capabilities” at the Nevada test site.

“(This) will provide modern diagnostic capabilities and data to help maintain the safety and performance of the U.S. nuclear stockpile without further underground nuclear explosion testing,” the agency said.