Obama Urged to Keep Pledge to Ratify Nuclear Treaty (Update1)

Source: Bloomberg

By Jonathan Tirone

Jan. 23 -- ... “There is a problem and regulation is needed,” Tibor Toth, 54, director of the Vienna-based United Nations treaty organization that is seeking to outlaw atomic weapons testing, said yesterday in an interview. “The arrangements in place to address the threat posed by nuclear weapons are showing cracks in the facade.”

The U.S. is one of nine countries that have yet to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The U.S. Senate rejected the treaty in 1999 after Bill Clinton’s impeachment hearings. George W. Bush’s administration wanted to reserve the right to build and test new atomic weapons and allowed a treaty vote to languish ...

There have been more than 2,000 nuclear test explosions worldwide since the Manhattan Project’s Trinity trial in July 1945. The last detonation occurred in October 2006 when a North Korean explosion was detected and confirmed by the Vienna treaty organization’s more than 200 monitoring stations worldwide.

“Testing is still an essential step to demonstrate a credible nuclear weapons program,” said Rebecca Johnson, director of the London-based Verification Research, Training and Information Center. “Without the CTBT you have no chance to curb proliferation or make progress on nuclear disarmament” ...



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