Government secrecy concerning nuclear weapons testing

The secrecy surrounding nuclear weapons developments leads the nuclear powers to infer the 'worst case' which heightens mistrust, hinders international arms reduction talks, and accelerates the arms race. In addition, secrecy may cover up nuclear accidents and their causes, and also prevent accountability of the public cost of enriching arms manufacturers.

In 1993 the Congress of the USA was investigating evidence that the Pentagon had faked missile tests in 1984 to persuade Congress to invest billions of dollars in the Strategic Defence Initiative. It was also announced that since 1951 the USA had conducted more than 200 underground atomic weapons tests that had never previously been made known to the public.

1. Government secrecy regarding weapons performance is a necessary part of any propaganda campaign against potential enemies. Such a campaign may usefully include some form of disinformation that would lure the potential enemy costly errors, notably the expenditure of funds in response to non-existent weapons.

1. Official cover-up of consequences of experiments
2. Nuclear weapons testing
3. Military secrecy
4. False claims

1. Nuclear power station irradiation
2. Nuclear accidents in space

1. Offensive weapons
2. Nuclear arms race
3. Environmental hazards constraining scientific research

1. Using secrecy
2. Preventing movement of weapons-usable nuclear materials to non-nuclear states
3. Maintaining government secrecy concerning nuclear weapons testing
4. Hiding weapons
5. Falsifying claims for weapons performance
6. Exposing government secrecy concerning nuclear weapons testing
7. Discrediting false claims for weapons performance
8. Continuing role of the USA for global stability
9. Checking claims for weapons performance

1. Clandestine
2. Fallacy
3. Secrecy