Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

If ratified, I would vote for legislation to implement the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban  Treaty

Background:  
(The following information is provided by the Campaign for United Nations Reform)

The United States has a vital national security interest in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) prohibits testing of nuclear weapons, a crucial step for countries attempting to develop nuclear weapons. This creates a difficult technical obstacle for countries that seek to acquire nuclear weapons in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

The CTBT will come into effect once the 44 nations of the world with nuclear facilities and/or weapons sign and ratify it. Currently, 155 states have signed the CTBT, and 51 (including 26 of the 44 nuclear powers) have ratified it. The Treaty was signed by the United States in September of 1996 but defeated in the first ratification vote in the U.S. Senate on October 13, 1999.

Ratification of CTBT would: 1) strengthen U.S. national security by improving U.S. ability to detect and deter nuclear explosions; 2) allow the U.S., through proposed safeguards, to maintain a safe and reliable deterrent; 3) place a constraint on nuclear weapons programs in states like Russia, China, Pakistan, and India; and 4) reestablish the U.S. position as a leader against global nuclear proliferation. United States ratification will encourage ratification of the Treaty by other states.

Critics of the CTBT have not articulated a coherent strategy for limiting the spread of nuclear weapons outside the framework of the Treaty. Without a treaty banning nuclear testing there is little basis for international action against new nuclear weapons states. Any attempt to apply sanctions would be ineffective without broad support from the international community. The U.S. ratification of the CTBT is necessary to apply sanctions-moral, technical and economic-against states acquiring nuclear weapons in violation of the NPT or states transferring nuclear weapons technology.

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