Marking the 15th Annual International Day Against Nuclear Tests

Floor Speech

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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, 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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