FEATURE

Testing is ‘engine of arms race’

Since 1945, the United States has conducted over 800
nuclear weapons tests— more by far than any other state
— yet because of plans for Star Wars and new first-strike
capable missiles, remains utterly unwilling to negotiate a
ban on nuclear explosions.

This despite a self-imposed Soviet moratorium on
atomic testing that was declared last July, which is
scheduled to last at least until August 6.

““The Soviet offer may be the best opportunity in
decades to break the deadlock in arms negotiations,”
says Gordon Flowers, executive secretary of the Cana-
dian Peace Congress. ‘‘The major stumbling block has
been an adamant American refusal to even consider the
idea of a mutual testing ban. Their insistence on con-
tinued testing is closely related to other issues in the
nuclear arms race, such as Star Wars, and this is why we
think the testing issue is so important. If we can get an
agreement on that, we can begin to put the brakes on
many different types of weapons at the same time’’.

Calls have come from many parts of the world in
support of an immediate comprehensive test ban agree-
ment between the USSR and the United States. A com-
prehensive test ban would forbid any nuclear explosions
for any purpose whatsoever. Such an agreement would
supersede the Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963), which
ended atmospheric, underwater and orbital nuclear
tests; the Threshold Test Ban Treaty (1974), which li-
mited underground tests to 150 kilotons yield — and was
never ratified by the U.S. — and the Treaty on Nuclear
Explosions for Peaceful Purposes (1976), also never
ratified by the U.S., which restricted use of nuclear
explosives in construction and other engineering
projects.

_ According to the Center for Defence Information, a

comprehensive test ban treaty was nearly ready for sign-
ing during the last round of negotiations which began
under Carter in 1977. All of the key concerns about
verification of such an agreement were settled at that
time, with the USSR putting forward a number of pro-
posals to facilitate this, including:

e The Soviets agreed to accept a network of seismic
monitoring stations on Soviet territory;

e The Soviets accepted provisions in principle for the
use of on-site inspections to resolve suspicious events;

e The Soviets agreed to an international exchange of
seismic and other testing data;

e The Soviets agreed to a moratorium on their peace-
ful nuclear explosives program.

All of these problems were worked out and a draft
treaty almost ready to sign when the negotiations were
suspended in the new Cold War atmosphere of 1980. The

incoming Reagan administration refused:to resume the:

talks and, in July 1982, formally abandoned them.

As the Center for Defence Information has noted,
‘‘abandonment of all efforts to negotiate an end to nu-
clear testing is consistent with the Reagan administra-
tion’s active preparations to wage successfully both
conventional and nuclear war ... It is also consistent
with its decision to construct 17,000 new new nuclear
weapons in the next decade.”

A vast menu of new weapons-systems has caused the
Reagan administration to significantly step-up its tests of
nuclear devices. Since 1981, the U.S. has conducted an
average of 16 atomic explosions annually. The nuclear
testing budget for Star Wars-related weapons alone has
grown from $86-million in fiscal year 1985, to $115-mil-
lion this year. It will climb to $174.5-million next year.

‘This hits us in several ways,’’ notes Gordon Flow-
ers. ‘‘ Testing is the engine of the arms race, in a very real

Death without war

The United Nations agency, UNSCEAR, issued
these estimates in 1969 covering the number of
people who had suffered as a result of all nuclear
testing up to that time. Bear in mind that these
calculations are at least 17 years old, some 770
nuclear blasts have been detonated worldwide
since then:

Cancer deaths from

whole body exposure ....... 24,000 to 72,000
Deaths from bone cancer...... 2,640 to 3,000
Deaths from bone marrow

GOSE Se ee es a ek 8,400 to 9,240
Potal deaths <2) ne se 35,040 to 84,540

(Genetic mutations - were estimated to affect
168,000 people).

New
Analysis

Fred Weir

sense, and without it new weapons such as the MX
missile, the Trident D-5, the Midgetman missile, and the
new Star Wars X-ray laser could not be developed. A
ban on tests could create a whole new atmosphere for
arms talks, providing both the time and the incentive for
profound, lasting agreements to be negotiated.

‘“There is also the issue of fallout,’ continued Flow-
ers, ‘‘which has been thrown into sharper relief since the
Chernoby] accident in the Soviet Union. Although most

= —-<—.

Nuclear Explosions

1945-1986
802
570
Total: 1585
143 =
Mss .
lesan)
U.S. U.S.S.R. France United China India

Kingdom

Source: U.S. Natural Resources Defence Council

nuclear tests are conducted underground thes€ da
there have been several recorded incidents in whic?
explosions have spewed great quantities of radio
materials into the air, to be blown by the winds y
points of the world’’. 3
A major accident with an underground test 0c
December 8, 1968, when an explosion code-
““Schooner’’ threw almost 2 million cubic feet of 10 J
active sand and debris into the sky. The fallout
drifted across the Canadian border, at which po!”
U.S. Air Force stopped monitoring it. High levé
radiation were later measured at Ottawa, Montté
Quebec. A similar accident happened with a ! ON
shot code-named ‘‘Baneberry””, and again this past
with a Star Wars test named ‘‘Mighty Oak’’. ee
Such mishaps, says Flowers, cannot be come
with the Chernobyl tragedy because “‘where Chern?
was an accident with a peaceful installation, these q of
stant emmissions of radioactive pollutants from 9 c
tests are deliberate. They are being conducted onl 40
order to develop new and more deadly weapons,“
keep the arms race alive. If we don’t all end in a big i
we may find ourselves being slowly poisoned to deat ‘a
Many nations around the world have urged the i
of a comprehensive test ban, noted Flowers, inclu
the governments of Sweden, India, Argentina, Mew
Tanzania, and Greece. The Nobel Prize-winning W
national Physicians for the Prevention of Nucleat
representing 150,000 doctors in 49 countries, have
added their support to the test ban idea.

oI

A comprehensive ban on nuclear testing, ac-
cording to many nuclear experts, would be the
single most useful and productive step that could
be taken to halt and begin to reverse the nuclear
arms race. There are at least five good reasons
why:

1) A complete ban on testing would halt the
emergence of the so-called ‘‘third generation’’ of
nuclear weapons. Currently under development,
these weapons will be designed to concentrate the
destructive force of the nuclear explosion in
selective ways. The Neutron Bomb, for example,
was an early speciment of the ‘‘third generation”
— it emphasized deadly radiation while muting
blast and heat.

now on the drawing boards is a hydrogen-bomb
powered X-ray laser. This device, named ‘‘Ex-
calibur’’, would be fired into the path of oncoming
missiles, where it would detonate, channeling all
of its energy into laser bolts to strike and destroy
the missiles. ‘‘Excalibur’’ is one of the most im-
portant Star Wars weapons currently being con-

series of upcoming ones, are directly related to its
development.

A mutual test ban, however, would halt the
development of the ‘‘third generation” and throw
awrench into Star Wars research. If new weapons
could not be tested, they could not be placed into

would be halted in its tracks.
2) Nuclear weapons, like most things in this
world, have a limited shelf-life. This means that
‘they deteriorate over time, and that only sample
testing on occasion can ensure that they will func-
tion properly. The Reagan administration has
drawn attention to this point, claiming that a test

nuclear deterrent’’, by making its potency sus-
pect. Experts counter that the U.S. and Soviet

context of a mutual test ban, increasing the pres-
sure on both to turn unreliable nuclear stockpiles

Five reasons to ban testing :

_ment, a comprehensive test ban would be the

The most important new weapon of this type ~

sidered, and several of the recent tests as wellasa :

production, and the next phase of the arms race .

ban would ‘‘undermine the credibility of the U.S.

arsenals would deteriorate at an equal rate in the -

into reliable arms control agreements. Moreovel>
the USSR has shown itself willing to take this”
responsibility unilaterally since last August.

3) First-strike weapons, which must perform
with absolute accuracy and precision, would bee
the first to deteriorate in the absence of testiN& —
The world would become a much safer place if the
functionality of the existing first-strike arseD®. —
were increasingly in doubt, and new weapons ©
this type could not be developed. e

4) Of all possible areas of arms control agre@™

easiest to verify. The Reagan administration h®° |}
claimed that verification presents difficultie®
however most U.S. scientists disagree.

“Scientists say that the seismic waves gene!
ated by underground explosions can be detect”
up to 6,000 miles away,” writes Bruce Kimmel of
the U.S. Peace Council. ‘‘Also, the U.S. ha.
monitoring devices on bases near the Soviet bor
der. The Soviets have none close to the U- }}
Finally, the Soviet Union in 1980 and again last !
November agreed to on-site inspection and t
placement of tamper-proof seismic monitors ony
its territories’.

5) Acomprehensive test ban is an immediatelY
achievable and workable goal. Agreement in this |}
area would have important repercussions for t
whole arms control process, and would be
important confidence-building measure.
Soviet initiative, in declaring a unilateral mol®
torium, cannot last much longer. The opportunity
must be seized before next August 6, or it may
lost forever.

As the authoritative Centre for Defen°®
Information in Washington has noted: ‘A com
prehensive test ban could, by itself, go far in slow”
ing the onrushing pace of the nuclear arms race
No less important, it would prove to be an esse™ |
tial first step in achieving other important mee :
sures to slow, halt and reverse this costly af z
potentially fatal arms competition’.

ee

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 11, 1986