What does this mean? Well, Trump said last Thursday, on the 28th of October, that we will begin testing nuclear weapons again after 3 decades of not doing so. What’s most likely is that Trump’s tests won’t produce mushroom clouds, as experts say. Experts say that the resumption of tests would be a major escalation that could aid in the development of nuclear power. There is only one place they can test the atomic weapons, which is near Las Vegas, Nevada. The Nevada Security Site is the only safe location in Nevada to test them because it spans approximately 1,300 square miles, which is larger than the state of Rhode Island. In the 1950’scientists conducted atmospheric nuclear tests at the site, but from 1962 to 1992, testing was done underground. “Today, testing would likely be done in a complex of deep underground mineshafts,” Peters said.

Robert Peters is a researcher who works at the Heritage Foundation. He is a nuclear expert, and he explained all of the risks of the new nuclear testing.

How it usually goes is that scientists dig a deep shaft either directly in the ground or on the side of a mountain. Then we put a nuclear device in a chamber at the end of the shaft and seal the shaft up. The detonation is contained by the rock, also reducing the risk of atmospheric fallout. Even though underground testing is usually safer, there are some risks to look out for; the risk is that the blasts could shake buildings as far away as Las Vegas.

At the end of the Cold War, the world’s major nuclear powers declared a voluntary pause on nuclear testing. Russia, then the Soviet Union, tested its last nuclear weapon in 1990. Then the U.S. did its last test in 1992, with China, which finished its last test in 1996.