Context: Recently, the United States State Department has accused China and Russia of conducting nuclear tests with low yields, in violation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Background

Partial Test-Ban Treaty (PTBT)

• The ban on nuclear testing is seen as a necessary first step towards curbing the nuclear arms race.
• In successful negotiations, a Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) was concluded in 1963 banning underwater and atmospheric tests.
• However, this was not sufficient as the PTBT only drove testing underground and didn’t decrease testing. Cold War politics led to continued testing by the nations, with the U.S. and Russia accounting for the most number of tests.

Current Scenario

• In mid-April, a report issued by the United States State Department on “Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments (Compliance Report)” raised concerns that China might be conducting nuclear tests with low yields at its Lop Nur test site, in violation of its Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) undertakings.
• The U.S. report also claims that Russia has conducted nuclear weapons experiments that produced a nuclear yield and were inconsistent with ‘zero yield’ understanding underlying the CTBT, though it was uncertain about how many such experiments had been conducted.
• Where Russia and China have rejected the U.S.’s claims, but with growing rivalry among major powers the report is a likely harbinger of a new nuclear arms race which would also mark the demise of the CTBT that came into being in 1996 but has failed to enter into force even after a quarter century.

About Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)

• CTBT was negotiated at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996.
• The Treaty intends to ban all nuclear explosions - everywhere, by everyone. It was opened for signature in 1996 and since then 182 countries have signed the Treaty, most recently Ghana has ratified the treaty in 2011.
• A comprehensive test ban has been defined as a “zero yield” test ban that would prohibit supercritical hydro-nuclear tests but not sub-critical hydrodynamic nuclear tests.
• Hydronuclear tests study nuclear materials under the conditions of explosive shock compression. Their yield ranges from negligible all the way up to a substantial fraction of full weapon.
• Subcritical (or cold) tests are types of tests involving nuclear materials and possibly high-explosives that purposely result in no yield.
• The Treaty will enter into force after all 44 States listed in Annex 2 to the Treaty will ratify it.
• These States had nuclear facilities at the time the Treaty was negotiated and adopted.

As of August 2011, 36 of these States have ratified the Treaty. Eight States still need to do so: China, North Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States.

• India, North Korea and Pakistan have not yet signed the Treaty.
• All three have also undertaken tests after 1996; India and Pakistan in May 1998 and North Korea six times between 2006 and 2017.
• The CTBT has therefore not entered into force and lacks legal authority.

About Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)

• The organization promotes the Treaty so that it can enter into force.
• It establishes a verification regime to monitor adherence to the Treaty. The verification system is built around a network of over 325 seismic, radionuclide, infrasound and hydroacoustic (underwater) monitoring stations.
• The organization was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Vienna. It employs a staff of roughly 260 from the CTBT’s Member States.