The US is not planning to conduct nuclear explosions, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said, calming global concerns after President Donald Trump called on the military to resume weapons testing.
These are not nuclear explosions, Wright told Fox News on Sunday. These are what we call non-critical explosions.
The comments come days after Trump wrote on Truth Social that he had directed defence officials to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis with rival powers.
But Wright, whose agency oversees testing, said people living in the Nevada desert should have no worries about seeing a mushroom cloud.
Americans near historic test sites such as the Nevada National Security Site have no cause for concern, Wright said. So you're testing all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry, and they set up the nuclear explosion.
Trump's comments on Truth Social last week were interpreted by many as a sign the US was preparing to restart full-scale nuclear blasts for the first time since 1992.
In an interview with 60 Minutes on CBS, which was recorded on Friday and aired on Sunday, Trump reiterated his position.
I'm saying that we're going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do, yes, Trump said when asked by CBS's Norah O'Donnell if he planned for the US to detonate a nuclear weapon for the first time in more than 30 years.
Russia and China have not carried out such tests since 1990 and 1996 respectively. China, in response to Trump, stated that it upholds a self-defence nuclear strategy and has committed to suspending nuclear testing.
The exact number of nuclear warheads held by each country remains classified, but estimates suggest that Russia holds around 5,459, while the US has about 5,177. China is a distant third with an estimated 600 warheads.
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