Copyright NBC 5 Chicago
The surprise announcement that the United States is planning to resume nuclear testing is sending shockwaves through the scientific community. “The first reaction when you hear that is Oh my God, I can’t believe this is real,” said Professor Daniel Holz, a University of Chicago physicist and the Chair of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Holz helps set the organization’s “Doomsday Clock” which represents the likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe. “It’s hard to state how dangerous it would be for everyone if testing is actually resumed,” he said. The President’s announcement came in the form of a post on Truth Social Wednesday, just before his meeting in Korea with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It said that Donald Trump was “instructing the Secretary of War to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis” with China and Russia. On Air Force One, Trump told reporters that the post had nothing to do with those countries, but it “had to do with others.” For Holz, the announcement only raised questions. “What is really meant here? What is being proposed? Is this explosive nuclear testing or testing of nuclear platforms?” he said. When asked, Vice President JD Vance said that both the Russians and the Chinese have large nuclear arsenals. “Sometimes you have got to test it to make sure its functioning and working properly,” he said. It has been more than three decades since the United States has conducted nuclear tests. It is a signatory to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, but the Senate has so far prevented ratification of that treaty. Holz said the lack of precision in the President’s declaration could be dangerous. “By just being imprecise, by being vague, it creates chaos.” he said. “When you are talking about nuclear weapons, something that can destroy the world over in about an hour, you don’t want chaos.” The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists will be meeting in the next few weeks to reconsider resetting the doomsday clock. Right now, the hands stand at 89 seconds to midnight...the closest the world has ever been to catastrophe.
