Test Ban Treaty

Two test ban treaties aimed at prohibiting most nuclear weapons testing have been adopted:

• The Partial Test Ban Treaty, adopted in 1963, signed by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, prohibited all testing except underground tests.
• Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996, a multilateral treaty by which states agree to ban all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes. It has not entered into force due to the non-ratification of eight specific states.