WASHINGTON, October 30. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump’s directive on nuclear testing, judging by its content, does not imply the detonation of warheads, US anti-war and anti-nuclear movement representative Greg Mello, who heads the Los Alamos Study Group in the state of New Mexico, told TASS.
"rump did not request nuclear explosive testing, but rather testing of nuclear weapons on an "equal basis" with Russia and China," he believes. As the expert recalled, "Russia has recently tested novel nuclear warhead delivery systems — the "Skyfall" nuclear-powered cruise missile and the "Poseidon" nuclear-powered torpedo." "Neither Russia nor China has conducted a nuclear explosive test of warheads in decades," Mello emphasized. In his view, "Taking [US] President [Trump] at his word, the US is not going to resume "nuclear testing" — i.e. testing involving nuclear explosions — either."
Mello noted that even if Trump "somehow did mean nuclear explosive testing — and there is no indication of that in his words," the process of preparing for them "would not be simple and could not be completed in a few months." "There are in any case no technical reasons to conduct such tests and there is no bureaucratic pressure or hidden program to prepare for them. Technically, they are obsolete," the specialist is convinced.
On October 30, Trump announced on Truth Social that he has instructed the Pentagon to immediately begin testing nuclear weapons. TASS has requested clarification and comments from the White House, the Pentagon, and the US State Department, including asking whether the president's statements mean that the US will resume nuclear explosions, despite the fact that neither Russia nor China has conducted such tests for a long time. No response to this inquiry has been received yet.