Opinion

US fusion breakthrough reinforces the case against live nuclear tests, and India should take note

The success of virtual nuclear testing has set the stage for ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty, but India still wants to conduct nuclear tests

A breach of norms against testing should invite universal condemnation and punitive action, and not be enabled by a waiver of sanctions

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India’s long-range ballistic Agni-V missile is displayed during a Republic Day parade in New Delhi on January 26, 2013. India has successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile and has pushed for further testing to verify its nuclear capabilities. Photo: AP

Riaz Khokhar is a political science graduate from the University of Gothenburg and a former research officer at the Centre for International Strategic Studies (CISS) and an Asia studies visiting fellow at the East-West Centre in Washington.

Published: 3:30am, 10 Jan 2023

Last month’s fusion ignition breakthrough by scientists in the US reinforced the multilateral norm against live nuclear tests and advanced the earlier work of confining nuclear explosions to within simulation labs. However, it could be bad news for India, which has in the past argued for a resumption of testing to validate its nuclear weapon designs.

The nuclear fusion breakthrough came on December 5, when physicists at the US Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility were able to produce more energy from fusion than had been used to power the experiment.

The fusion ignition lasted less than a second, but a sustainable chain reaction would allow scientists to test modern nuclear devices on computers, with no need to detonate nuclear bombs in the real world.