Senior Policy Director Alexandra Bell spoke with The Santa Fe New Mexican about the 75th anniversary of the Trinity Test and the idea of resuming nuclear weapons tests.
“The $10 million authorized for test preparation ‘if necessary’ was a partisan political stunt, pure and simple,” said Alexandra Bell, senior policy director at the nonprofit Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. “It is an amount that would not even begin to cover the costs of test preparations.”
The Energy Department did not ask for this money and has been “noticeably silent” on the subject, Bell said. And making countries believe the U.S. might return to nuclear testing only increases instability at a dangerous time, she said.
Bell said the best way to stop countries like China and Russia from doing tests is to give teeth to the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Read more