CNN: US officials want to convince Trump to abandon nuclear tests

Senior energy officials plan to meet with the White House and National Security Council in the coming days to dissuade the US president Donald Trump from resuming nuclear weapons testing. This was reported by the TV channel CNN with reference to unnamed interlocutors familiar with the matter.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Director Brandon Williams, and representatives of national laboratories want to inform the White House that they do not consider it acceptable to detonate weapons to test nuclear warheads.

A White House official said on Thursday that "because of other countries' testing programs, President Trump has directed the Department of War and the Department of Energy to test our nuclear weapons on a level playing field."

"Nothing was excluded from consideration, as all decision-making powers belong to the president," he added.

At the same time, U.S. Department of Energy spokesman Ben Diederich denied that agency officials would dissuade the White House from resuming the tests.

"The Trump administration continues to explore all options as it seeks to expand nuclear testing on a level playing field with other countries," the spokesman said.

However, the sources said that at the upcoming meeting in the White House, representatives of the NNSA and the US Department of Energy will be ready to tell the administration that "no tests" involving explosions of nuclear materials will take place and will try to convince the White House to develop a workable plan that does not involve explosions.

Officials hope that this will give Trump the opportunity to join the NNSA's approach, one of the sources added.

However, the US president has the right to order the test in any case if he disagrees with nuclear experts. The NNSA declined to comment.

"The NNSA does not comment on current or potential face-to-face meetings with the White House, especially on nuclear security issues," NNSA spokeswoman Mariza Smylaj told CNN.

The internal conflict was triggered by Trump's October publication, in which he instructed the Pentagon to begin testing nuclear weapons "because of test programs conducted by other countries."

CNN reminded that today the United States is testing all components of its nuclear systems, except for the explosive nuclear material in warheads.

• On October 30, Trump instructed the Pentagon to immediately begin testing of American nuclear weapons. This happened after Russia tested the weapon, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
• Already on November 2, the US Secretary of Energy announced that during nuclear tests, there will be no nuclear explosions.