1991

January 18
Gulf War - Operation Desert Storm. Israel is on nuclear alert for the duration of the war and reportedly threatens nuclear retaliation if Iraq uses chemical weapons on the Scud missiles fired at Israeli cities.

June 3
France announces that it will accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a nuclear weapons state.

July 10
South Africa accedes to the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapons state. The South African government claims to have made six nuclear weapons and to have dismantled them all.

July 18
Presidents Collor de Mello and Menem establish the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials, which enters into force on December 12.

July 19
Brazil and Argentina enter an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency to allow full-scope safeguards for their nuclear installations, while retaining rights over technological secrets.

July 31
Using pens made from melted down SS-20 and Pershing II missiles, President George Bush and President Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The Treaty calls for the elimination of almost 50 percent of the nuclear warheads carried by ballistic missiles.

August 10
China announces that it will accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a nuclear weapons state.

August 29
Semipalatinsk, the primary Soviet nuclear test site, is permanently shut down.

September 3
Russian President Boris Yeltsin calls for an international moratorium on nuclear testing.

September 12
Accord between Brazil and Argentina for the Exclusive Pacific Use of Nuclear Energy is issued. Under the accord, Brazil and Argentina agree to refrain from "testing, use, manufacture, production or acquisition, by any means, of any nuclear weapons; and the receipt, storage, installation, placement or any form of possession of any nuclear weapon."

September 27
President George Bush announces cancellation of the MX rail-garrison and short-range attack missile (SCRAM II) programs and the withdrawal of all remaining Army ground-based tactical nuclear weapons and Navy tactical nuclear weapons worldwide. (Air Force and Marine tactical nuclear weapons are not affected). He also ends the 24-hour alert status of B-1B and B-52 bombers.

A missile misfires on a Soviet Typhoon class nuclear-powered submarine carrying several nuclear weapons.

October 5
President Mikhail Gorbachev announces that the Soviet Union will initiate a moratorium on nuclear testing, and eliminate or reduce a range of tactical nuclear weapons based on land, sea, and air, and will exceed START requirements. He also pledges to cut the number of Soviet strategic warheads to 5,000 within seven years.

October 11
Fire breaks out at reactor No. 2 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station.

October 29
The Ukrainian Supreme Soviet passes a resolution calling on the United Nations to initiate a scientific-technical program to close the Chernobyl nuclear power station.

November
In response to deteriorating conditions in the former Soviet Union the U.S. Congress initiates the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program (based on a bill intruduced by Senators Sam Nunn, D-Ga. and Richard Lugar, R-Ind.). The CTR authorizes the Department of Defense (DoD) to assist particular states of the former Soviet Union to

- dismantle and destroy weapons of mass destruction,

- strengthen the security of nuclear weapons and fissile materials in connection with dismantlement,

- prevent proliferation; and

- help demilitarize the industrial and scientific infrastructure.

December 4
Heads of State of the Andean countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela) adopt a Declaration on the Renunciation of Weapons of Mass Destruction at Cartagena, Colombia.

December 13
Accord between Brazil and Argentina for the Exclusive Pacific Use of Nuclear Energy is ratified.

December 25
Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union and signs a decree making Russian President Boris Yeltsin commander of the Soviet arsenal of 27,000 nuclear warheads.