[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 129 (Thursday, September 24, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10938-S10939]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       THE COMPREHENSIVE TEST-BAN TREATY: TWO YEARS AND COUNTING

Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, today is the second anniversary of 
the signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. It is also 
nearly a year since

[[Page S10939]]

the President submitted that treaty to the Senate for its advice and 
consent to ratification.
  Much has happened since then. For example, Congress funded the 
Department of Energy's Stockpile Stewardship program to ensure that 
U.S. nuclear weapons remain safe and reliable in the absence of nuclear 
testing.
  We are building new state-of-the-art facilities that will enable 
scientists to replicate processes that occur in nuclear explosions. We 
are developing new computers to permit the complex modeling that is 
necessary to understand nuclear explosions and to test new component 
materials or designs. We are conducting sub-critical experiments that 
are permitted under the Test-Ban Treaty.
  We are also inspecting annually each type of nuclear weapon in our 
arsenal, so that problems associated with the aging of those weapons 
can be identified and corrected without a need for nuclear weapons 
tests. These inspections and corrective actions enable our nuclear 
weapons establishment to certify on an annual basis that there are no 
problems that require renewed nuclear testing.
  In short, then, the United States is showing the world that it is, 
indeed, possible to maintain nuclear deterrence under a test-ban 
regime.
  We are also showing the world that it is possible to verify 
compliance with the Test-Ban Treaty. Verification is never perfect, but 
the nascent International Monitoring System has functioned well enough 
to severely limit what a nuclear power can learn from undetected 
testing.
  Last May, India and Pakistan conducted nuclear weapons tests. Critics 
of the Test-Ban Treaty note that the International Monitoring System--
some of which is already in place--did not predict those tests. Of 
course, the verification system was never intended to predict nuclear 
weapons tests, only to detect them and to identify the country 
responsible.
  The International Monitoring System and other cooperating seismic 
stations did a fine job, in fact, of locating the Indian and Pakistani 
tests and estimating their yield. By comparing this year's data to 
those from India's 1974 nuclear test and from earthquakes in the 
region, seismologists have shown that this year's tests were probably 
much smaller--and less significant in military terms--than India and 
Pakistan claimed.
  Most recently, the Senate voted to fund continued development of the 
International Monitoring System. The national interest requires that we 
learn all we can on possible nuclear weapons tests. I am confident that 
the Senate made the right choice in voting to restore these funds.
  When it comes to the Test-Ban Treaty itself, however, the Senate has 
yet to speak. The Committee on Foreign Relations has yet to hold a 
hearing, let alone vote on a resolution of ratification.
  In the great Sherlock Holmes mystery ``The Hound of the 
Baskervilles'' the crucial clue was the dog that did not bark. On this 
treaty, the Senate has been such a hound.
  Now, why won't this dog bark? I think it's because the Senators who 
keep this body from acting on the Test-Ban Treaty know that it would 
pass. A good three-quarters of the American people support this treaty. 
In fact, support for the treaty has increased since the Indian and 
Pakistani nuclear tests, despite disparaging comments by some treaty 
opponents.
  Worse yet, as far as some treaty opponents are concerned, India and 
Pakistan are talking about signing the Test-Ban Treaty. That would chip 
away mightily at the claim that this treaty will never enter into 
force, even if we ratify it. The fact is that with U.S. leadership, we 
can get the world to sign up to a ban on nuclear explosions. I am 
confident that we will do precisely that.
  Treaty opponents have it within their power to stifle America's role 
in the world and diminish our ability to lead. They also have it within 
their power, however, to help foster continued American leadership in 
the coming year and the coming century. I believe that, in the end, 
their better instincts--and a sober recognition of where the American 
people stand--will prevail.
  The Senate will give its advice and consent to ratification of this 
treaty--not this year, but next year. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-
Ban may be two years old today, but it is also the wave of the 
future.

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