Should The U.S. Reinstate Its Nuclear Testing Program?

"Baker Shot" part of Operation Crossroads, a nuclear test by the United States at Bikini Atoll in 1946. (Credit: Wikipedia)

In light of rising geopolitical tensions between the United States and rogue countries, such as North Korea and Iran, we think it might be time to start up a limited and short-term modern day nuclear testing program which will showcase our latest and most powerful weapons. This could be just one simple test of the largest device we possess and are able to deploy in a wartime scenario or multiple tests which demonstrate the consistency and reliability of our warheads.

The last U.S. nuclear test took place at the Nevada Test Site on September 23, 1992, which was nearly 30 years ago. It was code-named "Divider," held a 20 kiloton load and was detonated underground.

Why now?

If the government were to conduct at least one test in a remote/barren area and capture it in full HD video with sound, we think this would potentially deter any further escalation and aggressive rhetoric between the U.S. and hostile regimes.

A family of mannequins who were subject to an atomic bomb test at “Doom Town” in Yucca Flat, Nevada. (Credit: hcn.org)

This series taken by an automatic camera in 1953 shows the effects of an atomic bomb on a house built one mile from the point of detonation, over a period of 2.3 seconds. (Credit: BuzzFeed)

Detonating the largest device we have, whether it is publicly known or classified, over a mock remake of a portion of North Korea's capitol city, Pyongyang (including the Ryongson Residence where Kim's presidential palace is located), and releasing the subsequent footage worldwide, could perhaps "open his eyes" to the absolute power of the United States military's weapons of mass destruction.

There would be no new arms race and no need to add additional weapons to our stockpile, as was done in the Cold War era. As stated before, this would simply be at least one test which perhaps surpasses the Soviet Union's Tsar Bomba.

Tsar Bomba (Russian: Царь-бомба; "Tsar-bomb", or "King of bombs") was the Western nickname for the Soviet RDS-220 hydrogen bomb (code name Ivan or Vanya), the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. Its test on 30 October 1961 remains the most powerful human-made explosion in history. The bomb had a yield of 50 megatons of TNT (210 PJ). In theory, it had a maximum yield of 100 megatons if it were to have included a U-238 tamper, but because only one bomb was built, this was never demonstrated. The single bomb was detonated at the Sukhoy Nos cape of Severny Island, part of Novaya Zemlya. (Caption Source: Wikipedia)

Naturally, rogue states like NK would condemn the test(s), but they would be hypocrites to do so.

Although Kim Jong-un's biggest deterrent against foreign aggression might not be his very small nuclear arsenal...

...but his thousands of conventional artillery pieces aimed south towards Seoul, the capitol of South Korea.

North Korea conducts its "largest-ever" live-fire drill of self-propelled artillery guns demonstrating their fire power at an event on the east coast this year. (Caption Credit: abc.net.au)

Still, this new test (or series of tests) might change his mind about actually utilizing his aging hardware in a preemptive attack since there would be dire consequences.

It's time

The wild insults and comments made by both Kim Jong-un and President Trump have done nothing but fuel the mainstream media frenzy and expose countries like South Korea and Japan, as well as territories and states like Guam, Hawaii and Alaska, to a potential nuclear strike by Kim's regime.

We think demonstrating the raw power of the United States military's unconventional weapons in a safe, responsible and highly documented test will remind not only NK and Iran - but also the world - of our might and capability.

Fire and fury can be avoided; we just need to stop talking and start taking action.

This would be a good first step.