The
Limited Test Ban Treaty (
LTBT) is a treaty prohibiting all
test detonations of nuclear weapons except
underground. It was developed both to slow the
arms race (nuclear testing was, at the time, necessary for continued developments in nuclear weapons), and to stop the excessive release of
nuclear fallout into the planet's atmosphere. The Treaty was signed and ratified by the governments of the
Soviet Union, the
United Kingdom, and the
United States during the autumn of 1963.