Images show Russia, China and US ‘increasing activity at nuclear sites’ | World News

Russia, China and the US have all expanded their nuclear test sites in recent years by building new storage facilities and digging underground tunnels.

The structural developments at three locations were evident in satellite images taken by a prominent analyst in military nonproliferation studies.

The sites are shown to have been bolstered over the past three to five years during a time of growing tension between the three nuclear powers.

They include a centre operated by China in the far western region of XinJiang, another by Russia in an Arctic Ocean archipelago, and one in the Nevada desert.

The images show new tunnels that run under mountains, new roads and storage facilities, as well as increased traffic coming to and from the sites.

While there is no evidence to suggest Russia, China or the United States is preparing for an attack, the developments may be a sign that they were preparing to resume nuclear testing, the analyst said.

The expansion at the sites and race to modernise nuclear weapons only heightens tensions between the countries at a time of ‘deep mistrust’.

‘The threat from nuclear testing is from the degree to which it accelerates the growing arms race between the United States on one hand, and Russia and China on the other,’ Jeffrey Lewis, an adjunct professor at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies told CNN.

Russia’s Novaya Zemyla was one of the two sites used by the Soviet Union for air drops and to conduct nuclear tests from the 1950s until 1990.

The satellite images show there has been extensive construction at the centre over the past two years, including new buildings, shipping containers and large trucks.

‘In the past five or six years, we’ve seen Russia dig new tunnels, which suggests that they are prepared to resume nuclear testing,’ Lewis told CNN.

‘It’s pretty clear to me that the Russians are gearing up for a possible nuclear test.’

Pictures also show increased activity at the Chinese nuclear test site in Lop Nur including a new, fifth underground tunnel and freshly-built roads.

The administrative and support area has been expanded while a new storage area was built in 2021 and 2022.

Photos of the US’s Nevada National Security Site show its underground facility has significantly expanded since 2018.

The U1a complex is used to conduct subcritical experiments on the US’s nuclear weapons, allowing reliability tests of its stockpile.

Its website states construction is currently underway on ‘new testbeds’ that will be home to new and advanced technology such as the Advanced Sources and Detectors Scorpius machine and the Neutron Diagnosed Subcritical experiments machine.

Underground nuclear testing was banned by the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty but it has not been enforced as it was not ratified by eight nations – including China and the US.

While Russia has ratified the treaty, President Vladimir Putin this year threatened to resume nuclear testing should the US do so first.

Accusing the US of turning Russia’s war in Ukraine into a global conflict, Putin in February pulled out of a landmark nuclear arms control agreement between the countries.

The New START Treaty was signed by then-US president Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in 2010.

It called for a halving of the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers and allowed the countries to check the other’s nuclear arsenal.

‘The elites of the West do not hide their purpose. But they also cannot fail to realise that it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield,’ Putin has said.

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