April 30, 2025
The Princeton Program on Science and Global Security (SGS) organized a discussion on the margins of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) at the United Nations on April 30, 20-25. The panel on “The Nuclear Age from the Standpoints of Its Victims: 80 Years of Nuclear Weapons Testing, Use, and Threat of Use” was sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Austria and chaired by Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, Director of the Disarmament, Arms Control and Nonproliferation Department of the Austrian Foreign Ministry.
The Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference met from 28 April to 9 May 2025 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The Committee is responsible for exploring issues and preparing common ground for the 193 States Parties of the Treaty for the once every five years Review Conference to be held in April-May 2026.
The goal of the panel was to highlight the upcoming 80th anniversary of the first nuclear weapon test (16 July 1945), the first use of a nuclear weapon in war (6 August 1945) and the first threat to use nuclear weapons (7 August 1945) – all of which were carried out by the United States.
In his remarks, Amb. Alexander Kmentt focused on the security concerns of non-weapon states and their peoples past and present as they have been articulated by the countries of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and civil society groups. In this view “the nuclear deterrence security paradigm is not only highly precarious, fragile and unsustainable but also seriously affects and diminishes the security of non-nuclear states and, ultimately, all humanity.”
Sebastien Philippe of SGS presented the current scientific understanding of the legacies of nuclear testing from the 1945 Trinity test explosion and after. This showcased recent technical work at SGS reconstructing the Trinity testshowing that radioactive fallout contaminated 46 US states, and parts of Canada and Mexico within 10 days. It also included simulations showing the widespread fallout and harms from French nuclear testing in the Pacific in the 1960s.
Mitchie Takeuchi explored the human experience and continuing effects of the first use of nuclear weapons. She is the writer and producer of the documentary film “The Vow From Hiroshima” and works with “Hibakusha Stories”, a group that highlights atomic bomb survivors testimony to inspire action for nuclear disarmament. She is the daughter and granddaughter of Hibakusha and grew up in Hiroshima. Her grandfather, Dr. Ken Takeuchi, was the founding president of Hiroshima’s Red Cross Hospital from 1937 to 1947. Both he and his daughter, Takako Takeuchi, Mitchie’s mother, survived the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
Zia Mian, Co-Director of SGS and Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Group of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons offered reflections on 80 years of threats of use of nuclear weapons and the need for an international diplomatic process to clarify and address the question of threats of use of nuclear weapons. The first nuclear threat was made by US President Harry Truman after the bombing of Hiroshima, when he declared Japan “may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the likes of which has never been seen on this earth.” Mian noted that the TPNW which entered into force in January 2021 includes a commitment “never under any circumstances to ... use or threaten to use nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices” and that in November 2022 the leaders of the G20 group of countries (which includes nuclear-armed Britain, China, France, India, Russia, and the United States] agreed that “The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.”