NEVADA (KOLO) – Nevada politicians Steven Horsford, Jacky Rosen and Susie Lee have all penned a letter to the Trump administration asking them to reverse course on a possible resuming of nuclear weapons testing.
“Nuclear weapons threaten every person on this planet — and President Trump’s reckless decision to resume testing endangers us all,”Rep. Horsford said. “For more than three decades, presidents of both parties have recognized that real strength in the nuclear age comes from restraint and global leadership, not provocation. This move abandons that legacy and undermines America’s strategic credibility on the world stage. By reigniting the most dangerous arms race in human history, this president is making the world less stable, less safe, and less secure. And for Nevada, it threatens to reopen one of the darkest chapters in our state’s history when radioactive fallout poisoned our air, our land, and our people. We cannot allow history to repeat itself.”
In their letter, they said, in part:
The decision announced last week on Truth Social is unnecessary, dangerous, and scientifically unjustified. It threatens to reawaken one of the darkest chapters in Nevada’s history, endangers American lives, and undermines decades of bipartisan work to keep our nation and the world safe from the devastation of nuclear war.
[T]o even contemplate detonating nuclear weapons again on U.S. soil is a betrayal of science, of safety, and of the American people… [It] risks igniting a new global nuclear arms race, signaling to adversaries that the U.S. is abandoning its leadership and commitment to restrain and nonproliferation.
No country except for North Korea has conducted an explosive nuclear test in this century. The sudden reversal weakens our diplomatic credibility, endangers our allies, and undermines international security.
Their letter makes three demands. They are seeking a reaffirmation of the U.S. moratorium on explosive nuclear weapons testing, providing Congress with a detailed accounting of all ongoing or proposed site activities, and the estimated cost of conducting such a test.
“Just this year, President Trump’s own NNSA Administrator explicitly stated that we do not need to conduct explosive nuclear testing. Rather than trusting the science and listening to the experts, including those at the Nevada National Security Sites, Donald Trump wants to perform dangerous, unnecessary tests to impress his buddies, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping,”said Congresswoman Susie Lee. “Nevada knows all too well the lasting consequences of nuclear testing. I won’t allow innocent Nevadans to pay the price for this president’s nuclear saber-rattling.”
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