US, Russia and China are building nuclear test sites, - CNN. PHOTOS
Russia, China, and the United States have increased activity at nuclear test sites and are expanding them.
According to Censor.NET, the relevant satellite images are published by CNN.
The photos show the expansion of three nuclear test sites. These are the Chinese site in the western region of Xinjiang, the Russian site on an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, and the US site in the Nevada desert.
For example, in the period from 2021 to 2023, large-scale construction was carried out at the Russian Federation's Novaya Zemlya landfill. Ships and new shipping containers are arriving at the port. In winter, roads were cleared and tunnels dug deep in the Arctic mountains.
Novaya Zemlya landfill.
Geoffrey Lewis, Associate Professor at the James Martin Center for Military Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said that over the past 5-6 years, Russia has been digging new tunnels, which may indicate a readiness to resume nuclear tests.
A former US Air Force intelligence officer told CNN that Russia is probably preparing for tests to scare the West.
Moscow did not respond to a request for comment on this issue.
Increased activity has also been detected at China's Lop Noor nuclear test site, a dried-up salt lake between two deserts in sparsely populated western China.
Chinese training ground in Lop Nur.
Unlike Russia's, China's test site is "huge and has many different parts," Lewis said.
In recent years, according to CNN, a new, fifth underground tunnel has been dug and new roads built. Satellite images from 2022 and 2023 show that the spoil heap is steadily increasing in size, which may indicate that the tunnels are being expanded.
In addition, new construction projects have taken place in the main administrative and support area. In particular, a new storage area was built in 2021 and 2022, possibly for explosives. New construction projects also started in the main administrative and support area. In 2021 and 2022, a new storage facility was built that could be used to store explosives.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to a CNN request, criticised the report and said it "inflates China's nuclear threat".
Satellite images taken over the Nevada nuclear test site, officially known as the Nevada National Security Site, show that the underground facility, the U1a Complex, was significantly expanded between 2018 and 2023.
The US nuclear test site in Nevada
The National Security Agency (NNSA) says the lab is designed to conduct "subcritical" nuclear experiments. It has previously explained that in subcritical experiments, chemical explosives create high pressures that are applied to nuclear weapon components such as plutonium. According to them, the amount of explosive and nuclear components is such that "there will be no nuclear explosion".
"We're seeing a lot of hints that suggest that Russia, China and the United States could resume nuclear testing," Lewis said.
