What it would take to ban testing
The history of disarmament negotiations is often said to be a history of missed opportunities. This is certainly true of most arms-control measures, but it is not true of the proposal to ban all nuclear weapons test explosions for all time. On three occasions during the past 30 years a test ban seemed imminent to outsiders and even to some negotiators: in 1958, when an East-West conference of seismic experts produced a report on the feasibility of detecting nuclear explosions; in 1962-1963, when the lack of agreement in the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament on the number of mandatory on-site inspections per year was alleged to be the sole obstacle to a test ban treaty; and in 1977-1980, when Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union appeared to make progress toward concluding a treaty in their trilateral negotiations. Having closely followed the debate, the author is convinced that at no time were the negotiators close to reaching agreement on a comprehensive test ban. But if the United States and the Soviet Union were to change the military doctrines that calls for ever more accurate and specialized nuclear weapons, he feels a treaty limiting tests to a very-low-yield explosions could now be negotiated. 2 references.
- Research Organization:
- International Peace Research Institute, Stockholm (Sweden)
- OSTI ID:
- 6228132
- Journal Information:
- Bull. At. Sci.; (United States), Vol. 44:8
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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