ISSUE BRIEF
No. 5371 | JANUARY 15, 2025
DOUGLAS AND SARAH ALLISON CENTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
This paper, in its entirety, can be found at https://report.heritage.org/ib5371
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America Must Prepare to
Test Nuclear Weapons
Robert Peters
China is the fastest growing nuclear
power on the planet—on track to become
a nuclear peer of the United States
within a decade.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Nuclear explosive testing may be neces-
sary to convince America’s adversaries
that it has the necessary resolve and a
credible nuclear arsenal.
The U.S. nuclear enterprise needs to
be prepared to conduct a nuclear test
in a timely fashion if ordered to do so
by the President.
T
he United States has not tested a nuclear
weapon since 1992.
1
However, given the dete-
riorating security environment, it may need
to do so once again.
The Summer 2024 Proposal to
Restart Nuclear Testing
In the July/August 2024 issue of Foreign Aairs,
former Trump National Security Advisor Robert
O’Brien argued that the United States should con-
sider restarting nuclear testing, in part due to Russian
and Chinese refusal to engage in nuclear arms con-
trol talks.
2
Indeed, not only have Russia and China refused to
engage in even preliminary arms control discussions
over the past decade,
3
but they have also increasingly
