[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 142 (Friday, August 29, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E791-E792]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    MARKING THE 15TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST NUCLEAR TESTS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN GARAMENDI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, August 29, 2025

  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark the 15th annual 
International Day Against Nuclear Tests, observed each year on August 
29th. This day serves as both a reminder of the terrible human and 
environmental toll of nuclear testing and a call to action as the world 
confronts new dangers of nuclear proliferation and a fraying arms 
control architecture.
  The United States knows well the harmful legacy of nuclear testing. 
Between 1945 and 1963, our Nation conducted more than one thousand 
explosive nuclear weapons tests, including over two hundred atmospheric 
detonations. The radioactive fallout from these tests condemned 
thousands of so-called ``downwinders'' to illness and premature death 
from cancers and other grave diseases. Their suffering is a stark 
reminder that even a world without nuclear war is not without victims 
of nuclear weapons.
  In 1990, Congress enacted the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to 
provide some measure of redress to individuals harmed by nuclear 
testing. Yet the program was incomplete, excluding key populations who 
endured some of the most devastating consequences of atmospheric 
nuclear detonations. This program, providing long-overdue compensation 
to those who bore the costs of our Nation's nuclear testing, was 
recently extended to 2028 and expanded to additional populations. But 
much more must be done to fully address the consequences of nuclear 
testing and to reduce the dangers posed by nuclear war.
  The burdens inflicted by nuclear testing are not borne by the United 
States alone. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, 
Kazakhstan inherited the world's fourth-largest nuclear arsenal and the 
Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Between 1949 and 1989, the Soviet 
Union conducted 456 nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk, devastating 
communities and leaving a toxic legacy for more than a million Kazakh 
citizens.
  Kazakhstan's decision to close the Semipalatinsk test site in 1991 
and to relinquish its nuclear arsenal was an act of profound global 
importance. By ratifying the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), 
joining the International Atomic Energy Agency, acceding to the Treaty 
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, signing the Comprehensive 
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, and working with the United States through the 
Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, Kazakhstan demonstrated how 
nations can choose security through disarmament rather than weapons of 
mass destruction.
  Together, our countries worked to eliminate Kazakhstan's inherited 
nuclear arsenal, dismantle former Soviet nuclear infrastructure,

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and secure vulnerable nuclear materials. Notably, this partnership 
resulted in the safe removal of over 1,300 pounds of highly enriched 
uranium from the Ulba Metallurgical Plant--strengthening global 
security and setting a model for future cooperation.
  Today, as arms control architectures fray and nuclear dangers mount, 
that example takes on new urgency. The world faces a moment of great 
peril: nuclear arsenals are being modernized, new technologies are 
emerging that could undermine strategic stability, and the norms 
against nuclear testing and proliferation are under strain. The vision 
of a world free from nuclear tests and the spread of nuclear weapons, 
advanced by Kazakhstan through their decision to disarm and continued 
commitment to a world free from nuclear weapons, is more urgent than 
ever.
  In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly designated August 29th 
as the International Day Against Nuclear Tests--honoring Kazakhstan's 
decision and reminding the world of the human costs of explosive 
testing of nuclear weapons.
  Civil society, too, has helped illuminate what is possible. The 
Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement, a grassroots anti-nuclear weapons 
movement uniting citizens across continents, helped build the momentum 
to end nuclear testing. We must draw on that same spirit today to 
reinvigorate arms control diplomacy, rebuild confidence in 
nonproliferation regimes, and press forward on treaties like the 
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
  On this 15th Annual International Day Against Nuclear Tests, I urge 
my colleagues to reaffirm our Nation's leadership in arms control, 
recommit to preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and materials, and 
ensure that the horrors of nuclear testing and nuclear weapons use are 
never repeated.

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