Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sunday clarified that the new nuclear weapons tests ordered by President Donald Trump will not include nuclear detonations — despite Trump’s recent social media post suggesting otherwise.
“It was the first clarity from the Trump administration since the president took to social media last week to say he had ‘instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis,’” Wright said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Briefing,” according to The Associated Press.
“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests,” Wright said. “These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call noncritical explosions.”
He explained that the testing will involve “all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion.”
The confusion began shortly before Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea last week. Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform appeared to suggest he was preparing to end the U.S. moratorium on nuclear explosive testing — a practice banned globally since the early 1990s.
Later, as Trump returned to Washington, he dodged questions about whether he was referring to resuming underground nuclear detonations or merely testing delivery systems, which the U.S. military routinely conducts.
“You’ll find out very soon,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday en route to Florida.
The United States has not conducted an explosive nuclear test since 1992, though it frequently tests its missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed by the U.S. but never ratified, has nonetheless been observed by all nuclear powers except North Korea.
Trump’s comments followed Russia’s announcement that it had tested a nuclear-powered underwater drone and a nuclear-capable cruise missile.
While Moscow stressed that it has not violated the global testing ban, the Kremlin warned that if the U.S. resumes explosive testing, Russia will do the same — potentially reigniting Cold War-era nuclear tensions.
