#Atomic bomb test site verification

Proclaiming as their principal aim the speediest possible achievement of an agreement on general and complete disarmament under strict international control in accordance with the objectives of the United Nations which would put an end to the armaments race and eliminate the incentive to the production and testing of all kinds of weapons, including nuclear weapons,

The Governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, hereinafter referred to as the 'Original Parties,' In accepting limitations on testing, the nuclear powers accepted as a common goal 'an end to the contamination of man's environment by radioactive substances.'īanning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water While not banning tests underground, the treaty prohibited such explosions if they caused 'radioactive debris to be present outside the territorial limits of the State under whose jurisdiction or control' the explosions were conducted. The treaty prohibited nuclear weapons tests 'or any other nuclear explosion' in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water. The Test Ban Treaty was signed in Moscow on Augratified by the United States Senate on Septemand entered into force on October 10, 1963. The uneven progress of the negotiations was also a result of regular fluctuations in East-West political relationships during the Cold War.

#Atomic bomb test site verification

Efforts to achieve a test ban agreement extended over eight years because they involved complex technical problems of verification and the difficulties of reconciling deep-seated differences in approach to arms control and security. A dozen resolutions of the UN General Assembly addressed the issue, repeatedly urging conclusion of an agreement to ban tests under a system of international controls. Public interest in the course of the negotiations was active and persistent. Apprehension was expressed about the possibility of a cumulative contamination of the environment and of resultant genetic damage.Įfforts to negotiate an international agreement to end nuclear tests began in the Subcommittee of Five (the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and the Soviet Union) of the United Nations Disarmament Commission in May 1955. As knowledge of the nature and effects of fallout increased, and as it became apparent that no region in the world was untouched by radioactive debris, the issue of continued nuclear tests drew widened and intensified public attention. In August of 1945, when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, World War II came to a conclusion.Ĭontinued testing of atomic and then hydrogen devices lead to a rising concern about the effects of radioactive fallout.