Nuclear weapons testing sites in the United States, China and Russia have all undergone new expansions – suggesting the countries could resume detonations, experts say

The United States, China and Russia have all recently expanded their underground nuclear bomb testing sites, a development that worries nonproliferation experts who fear a new global arms race.

Satellite images shared with DailyMail.com on Friday show significant construction work in recent years at the Nevada National Security Site near Area 51 in the US, China’s Lop Nur test site and Russia’s Novaya Zemlya nuclear test site.

Although there is no evidence that a nuclear test is imminent at any of the three sites, experts fear that the three powers are pushing each other closer to resuming underground nuclear tests for the first time since 1996.

“We’re really seeing a lot of evidence that Russia, China and the United States could resume nuclear testing,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an associate professor at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. told CNNwho first reported on the images.

“It is quite clear that all three countries, Russia, China and the United States, have invested considerable time, effort and money not only in modernizing their nuclear arsenals, but also in preparing the activities required for a test.” he added.

Satellite images from 2021 (left) and 2023 (right) show construction work at Russia’s most important nuclear test site.

Satellite images show significant construction work in recent years at the Nevada National Security Site in the US, China’s Lop Nur test site and Arctic Novaya Zemlya in Russia

Lewis analyzed satellite images showing recent construction at the three test sites and provided them directly to CNN and DailyMail.com.

The resumption of underground nuclear testing by the world’s three largest nuclear powers would be a significant break from a de facto moratorium that has lasted nearly three decades.

Russia’s last nuclear test took place in 1990 under the rule of the former Soviet Union. The last test in the USA took place in 1992, the one in China in 1996.

The 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty effectively ended underground testing in the three countries.

Both the US and China signed the treaty but never ratified it, while Russia ratified it.

Since then, only ten nuclear weapons tests have been conducted worldwide: two each by India and Pakistan in 1998 and six by North Korea from 2006 to 2017.

According to Lewis, accelerated construction at test sites in the United States, China and Russia is a warning sign of a new nuclear arms race.

“The threat of nuclear testing arises from the extent to which it accelerates the growing arms race between the United States on the one hand and Russia and China on the other,” Lewis told CNN.

“As a result, we spend huge amounts of money even though it doesn’t make us any safer.”

Although Russia has ratified the 1996 Test Ban Treaty, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed without evidence in February that the U.S. was preparing to resume nuclear testing and promised that Moscow would respond accordingly.

“If the United States conducts tests, then we will do it.” “No one should have dangerous illusions that global strategic parity can be destroyed,” Putin said.

Satellite images from Russia’s Novaya Zemlya test site show significant construction activity in the last two years

In August, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (right) paid an official visit to Novaya Zemlya, heightening fears that Moscow was planning to resume nuclear testing

From September 21, 1955 to October 24, 1990, hundreds of nuclear tests were carried out on Novaya Zemlya. One of the Russian tests can be seen above

William Courtney, an adjunct senior fellow at the RAND Corporation and a former U.S. nuclear negotiator in the USSR, called Putin’s comments “threatening.”

“A long-standing Kremlin tactic is to accuse others of doing what he plans to do,” he wrote in one comment. “A frustrated Putin could see nuclear testing as the next step on the escalation ladder.”

In August, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu paid an official visit to Novaya Zemlya, raising awareness of the nuclear test site and increasing fears that Moscow plans to resume nuclear testing.

Satellite images from Russia’s Novaya Zemlya test site show significant construction activity in the last two years.

Pictures from June show shipping containers, large trucks and several new buildings under construction.

Novaya Zemlya is located on a remote archipelago in the far north of Russia. Tunnels were drilled deep into the mountains for underground testing.

It was first used by the USSR to conduct nuclear tests in 1955 and was the site of hundreds of nuclear detonations until the last test in 1990.

Meanwhile, increased activity was also detected at China’s Lop Nur test site in Xinjiang province in western China.

Increased activity was also detected at the Chinese test site Lop Nur in Xinjiang Province in western China

Satellite images show excavations for a new, fifth underground tunnel at the site in recent years, as well as the construction of new roads

There was also new construction in the main administration and support area and a new storage area was built in 2021 and 2022.

The nuclear test base lies beneath the arid mountains surrounding a dry lake bed and was built in 1959.

China conducted its first nuclear test there in 1964 and conducted a total of 47 above- and underground tests until the last test in 1996.

Satellite images show excavations for a new, fifth underground tunnel at the site in recent years, as well as the construction of new roads.

Lewis told CNN that a comparison of images taken in 2022 and 2023 shows that a pile of rubble has grown at the site, indicating the expansion of underground tunnels.

There was also new construction in the main administration and support area and a new storage area was built in 2021 and 2022.

In the USA, the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) was founded in 1951 to test nuclear weapons. At least 100 atmospheric tests and 828 underground detonations took place here.

The NNSS is part of the massive federally controlled Nevada Test and Training Range and is located not far from the top-secret Air Force facility at Groom Lake, better known as Area 51.

Commercial satellite images shared by Lewis show that an underground facility at the site, known as the U1a complex, was significantly expanded between 2018 and 2023.

Commercial satellite images show that an underground facility at the Nevada site, known as the U1a complex, underwent significant expansion between 2018 (left) and 2023 (right).

The U1a complex is a laboratory “where scientists conduct subcritical and physics experiments to obtain technical information about the US nuclear weapons stockpile,” according to the NNSS

The NNSS website says the U1a complex is a laboratory “where scientists conduct subcritical and physics experiments to obtain technical information about the U.S. nuclear weapons inventory.”

“U1a is the only place in the country where subcritical experiments with plutonium in weapons-relevant quantities can be carried out,” the website continues.

In subcritical tests, the chemical explosive is detonated to apply high pressure to the nuclear material to ensure that it continues to function properly without causing a self-sustaining nuclear reaction.

A spokesperson for NNSS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com.

The National Security Administration (NNSA), a branch of the US Department of Energy that oversees the site, told CNN it is “recapitalizing the infrastructure and scientific capabilities” at the Nevada test site.

“(This) will provide advanced diagnostic capabilities and data to maintain the security and performance of the U.S. nuclear arsenal without the need for additional underground nuclear explosive testing,” the agency said.