Senate Dems press Trump to 'personally provide clarification' on nuclear tests after Wright remarks

Senate Democrats wrote a Wednesday letter to President Trump seeking clarification on the scope of resumed nuclear testing after Energy Secretary Chris Wright said such testing will not include nuclear explosions.

“While Secretary Wright recently sought to provide context to the directive you announced last week, we request that you personally provide clarification,” a group of 16 Democratic senators led by Sen. Martin Heinrich (N.M.) wrote.

“The decision to resume nuclear weapons testing would be geopolitically dangerous, fiscally irresponsible, and simply unnecessary to ensure the ability of the United States to defend itself,” the senators said, citing environmental and health concerns for citizens. 

Wright on Sunday said the Trump administration is planning to test new systems with nonnuclear explosions to modernize its nuclear stockpile.

The U.S. halted the explosive testing of nuclear arms in 1992. However, the president shared intentions to resume testing following Russia’s successful trial run of its new nuclear-capable cruise missile, known as the Burevestnik, which flew 8,700 miles.

Trump has also accused North Korea of testing nuclear weapons. Last week, he told reporters they would “find out very soon” whether the U.S. plans to resume underground nuclear detonation tests. 

Democratic senators said resuming nuclear testing sets a dangerous precedent and urged the president not to allow the “pursuit of security” to “outweigh the risk of global stability.”

“For decades, the directors of the nuclear weapons laboratories in their annual stockpile reports — with concurrence from the commander of U.S. Strategic Command and the secretaries of Defense and Energy — including through the entirety of the first Trump administration, and again this year by the second Trump administration — have said that the U.S. nuclear stockpile is militarily effective and does not require a resumption of explosive testing, with over a thousand subcritical experiments and robust computer modeling providing the data to support those positions,” the senators wrote.

“There is simply no need to break something that is already working. Your decision to potentially resume nuclear weapons testing not only undermines international nonproliferation efforts but also exacerbates what can be perceived as a nuclear arms race by world powers,” they added. 

In addition to Heinrich, the letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden (Ore.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Michael Bennet (Colo.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Ben Ray Luján (N.M.) and Jacky Rosen (Nev.).