Nuclear expansion testing: “It may never be able to be stopped” - Press Conference | United Nations

Press conference by Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), on the vital role of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in advancing the NPT's (Eleventh Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons) non-proliferation and disarmament objectives. Floyd addressed the press on the vital role of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in advancing the non-proliferation and disarmament objectives of the Eleventh Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). He said, “The NPT Review Conference and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference here this week, but for the next four weeks, is an important review of the cornerstone of the nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament architecture.” He said that CTBTO “is about implementing a treaty that sits within that architecture, and that is a treaty, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, banning nuclear explosions of any size - from the tiniest to the largest. That is an essential part of being able to stop the spread of nuclear weapons around the world from state to state, and also to limit the further development of nuclear weapons.” He continued, “The Treaty has not yet entered into force, and therefore is not legally binding, but our international monitoring system will detect a nuclear weapon explosion of 500 tons of TNT or above, anywhere across the face of the planet, or underwater, underground, it will be detected. And that is a powerful benefit to all humanity, because any state that thinks of developing a nuclear weapon would need to test one, and if they did, it will be known to all.” He highlighted, “In the current situation, the CTBT and the ban on testing is a little bit more in front of mind than what it has been for a long time, particularly when states are threatening to return to testing and the likelihood that if one state tests, others would and even more would potentially then go into a spiral of expanded testing. That is a spiral that we do not want to see start, because it may never be able to be stopped.” He reported, “We have 187 states have signed. 178 have ratified. But there are nine specific ones that still need to ratify so the treaty could become legally binding. That is an important issue.” Answering a question, he said, “We need to see a way that the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China, might be able to address the treaty and its ratification together. It is, I think, quite unlikely that any one of them would move on that without the others simultaneously moving together. And that certainly is something that I would encourage all of those states to consider, and that would certainly be a powerful step forward.”


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