Three test ban treaties aimed at prohibiting most
nuclear weapons testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected b ...
have been adopted:
* The
Partial Test Ban Treaty
The Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) is the abbreviated name of the 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, which prohibited all test detonations of nuclear weapons except for those conducted u ...
, adopted in 1963, signed by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, prohibited all testing except underground tests
*
Threshold Test Ban Treaty
The Treaty on the Limitation of Underground Nuclear Weapon Tests, also known as the Threshold Test Ban Treaty (TTBT), was signed in July 1974 by the United States and Soviet Union. It establishes a nuclear "threshold" by prohibiting nuclear test ...
, adopted in 1974 between the United States and Soviet Union limiting the yield of nuclear tests to 150 kilotons
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Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a multilateral treaty to ban nuclear weapons test explosions and any other nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments. It was adopted by the United Nation ...
, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996 but not in force, by which states agree to ban all nuclear explosions in all environments
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