[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 130 (Thursday, September 25, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9982-S9983]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY

 MR. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I rise today to commend President 
Clinton for submitting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to the Senate 
for its advice and consent.
  This treaty represents decades of work by eight administrations.
  Now it is time for the Senate to do its job and ratify the CTBT at 
the earliest possible date.
  Just as the United States was a leader in the development of nuclear 
weapons, the U.S. has also led the drive to limit nuclear testing. On 
June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy made an historic address at 
American University during which he announced that the U.S. and the 
Soviet Union would begin negotiations on a comprehensive test ban 
treaty.
  President Kennedy said, ``The conclusion of such a treaty, so near 
and yet so far, would check the spiraling arms race in one of its most 
dangerous areas. It would place the nuclear powers in a position to 
deal more effectively with one of the greatest hazards which man faces 
in 1963, the further spread of nuclear arms.''
  In the years since President Kennedy made those remarks, the world 
has witnessed the end of the Cold War, and the spiraling arms race he 
spoke of has come to an end.
  But the spread of nuclear weapons is still as great a hazard in 1997 
as it was in 1963. President Kennedy saw then that banning nuclear 
testing was an important step in curbing the proliferation of nuclear 
weapons.
  Now, 34 years after President Kennedy's speech and 52 years after the 
first nuclear test, we are finally on the verge of ending all nuclear 
explosions, including those underground.
  I fully agree with President Clinton, who--in announcing the action 
on this

[[Page S9983]]

treaty in front of the United Nations General Assembly earlier this 
week--proclaimed the CTBT as the ``longest-sought, hardest-fought prize 
in the history of arms control.''
  I think President Bush and President Clinton deserve a great deal of 
credit for making the final push to achieve a total test ban.
  In 1992, President Bush decided to place a unilateral moratorium on 
nuclear tests. President Clinton then extended the moratorium until a 
comprehensive test ban could be negotiated with the other nuclear 
powers.
  The leadership shown by President Bush and President Clinton created 
the momentum that led to the passage of the CTBT in the United Nations 
last year. Had the United States not taken the initiative to halt its 
nuclear testing first, I doubt that the Senate would have a test ban 
treaty to consider.
  It is critical that the United States not shirk its leadership role 
now that the CTBT is so close to going into effect. Already, eight 
states have ratified the CTBT including Japan, which ratified the 
treaty this past July, and, most recently, the Czech Republic on the 
8th of this month.
  But obviously the CTBT will be meaningless unless the five major 
nuclear powers ratify it. Here is where the United States can once 
again be at the front of the line. The United States has, after all, 
conducted the lion's share of nuclear tests in the last 50 years--1,030 
in all, compared to 715 by the Soviet Union; 45 by the United Kingdom; 
210 by France and 45 by China.
  But perhaps the greatest challenge to this treaty will be getting the 
undeclared nuclear powers on board. India and Pakistan have not signed 
the CTBT and their absence endangers the entire treaty. As two 
countries who have been in conflict with each other since becoming 
independent nations, India and Pakistan may have the most to gain from 
a ban on nuclear tests.
  The United States, along with each of the 145 other nations who have 
signed the treaty, need to work together to convince India of the 
wisdom of the comprehensive test ban. India should realize that the 
CTBT is just another step towards complete nuclear disarmament. 
Islamabad [iz-LAHM-ah-BAHD] indicates that once India agrees to the 
CTBT, Pakistan would also sign. This is an historic opportunity to help 
facilitate peace in Asia--one that the United States should not miss.
  North Korea is another holdout.
  But, unlike Pakistan and India, the North Koreans have yet to show a 
true commitment to greater integration in the international system. 
Many intelligence analysts from both the United States and South Korea 
believe that North Korea may already possess a crude nuclear device.
  Hopefully, one day, even North Korea will bend to international 
pressure and accept a test ban.
  Despite what critics of the CTBT might say, the treaty is 
enforceable.
  Nuclear explosions of any substantial size are very difficult to 
hide. This treaty will establish an international monitoring system 
that incorporates seismological, infrasound, and other technologies. 
State-of-the-art seismological sensors can detect blasts as small as 
one kiloton anywhere in the world.

  But the treaty also includes provisions for on-site monitoring so 
inspectors can visit test sights quickly if there is any suspicion that 
a nuclear blast has occurred.
  Events of the last month have illustrated how important it is to have 
a well-monitored CTBT. On August 16, seismologists detected evidence 
that Russia may have exploded a nuclear device at its test site in the 
Arctic. However, there is evidence to back Moscow's claim that the 
seismic activity was the result of an underwater earthquake, rather 
than a nuclear test.
  The monitoring regime that the CTBT will establish will make it much 
easier to investigate such incidents and will reduce mutual suspicion 
between the nuclear powers.
  The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is indeed something that will 
enhance the security of the United States. In addition to making the 
nuclear programs of China and Russia more transparent, the test ban 
will make it significantly more difficult for rogue states like Iran or 
Iraq to complete development of their own nuclear weapons.
  As a complement to the CTBT, the United States and the other nuclear 
powers should do all they can to ensure that threshold countries do not 
have access to advanced technology--such as high-speed computer 
modeling--that would help them to develop reliable weapons without 
actually conducting nuclear tests.
  Mr. President, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is now in our hands 
and it is up to the Senate to act.
  I hope the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee [Mr. 
Helms] will hold hearings on this treaty before the end of the First 
Session of the 105th Congress so that the full Senate can ratify the 
CTBT by early next year.
  This treaty has won near unanimous support in the United Nations. 
Countries--both Communist and capitalist, developing and developed--
have signed this treaty. The CTBT has overwhelming multilateral support 
and it deserves full bipartisan support in the Senate.
  I urge all my colleagues to support the Comprehensive Test Ban 
Treaty.
  Let me close with another quote from President Kennedy's speech at 
American University. ``Genuine peace must be the product of many 
nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing 
to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process--a 
way of solving problems.''
  Mr. President, the CTBT is an important tool in meeting one of 
today's biggest challenges: ending the threat of nuclear war.
  We must meet this challenge.

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