According to a recent Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Proliferation Analysis by Daryl Kimball, President Obama should use the International Day against Nuclear Tests to reiterate his pledge to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

American Does Not Need to Test Its Nuclear Arsenal

[T]here is simply no technical or military rationale for resuming testing. Contrary to myth, the United States has never relied on nuclear testing to ensure that proven warhead designs still work, but rather to perfect new types of nuclear bombs, which the U.S. military no longer needs nor wants.

According to the statement:

The 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 29 August as the International Day against Nuclear Tests through the unanimous adoption of its resolution 64/35 on 2 December 2009.   The Day is meant to galvanize the efforts of the United Nations, Member States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, youth networks and the media in informing, educating and advocating the necessity of banning nuclear tests as a valuable step to achieving a safer world.   The Preamble of the resolution emphasizes “that every effort should be made to end nuclear tests in order to avert devastating and harmful effects on the lives and health of people …and, that the end of nuclear tests is one of the key means of achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.”

Assistant Secretary of State for Verification, Compliance and Implementation Rose Gottemoeller spoke at the U.S. Strategic Command Deterrence Symposium yesterday, enumerating the finer points of the administration's final push for New START ratification and reaffirming its commitment to pursuing CTBT ratification in the future.

In an excellent editorial on August 11, The Salt Lake Tribune criticizes Mike Lee for his inconsistent and often misinformed position on the CTBT and urged Utah's Senate delegation to support the treaty.

After signing a right-wing petition that included opposition to the treaty, then reconsidering and expressing support for ratification, the candidate for Senate announced last week that he was once again opposed to ratification of the CTBT.