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.
It is officially known as the treaty banning nuclear
weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space
and under water, but is often abbreviated as the
Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), Limited Test Ban
Treaty (LTBT), or Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (NTBT)
although the latter also refers to the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The Treaty was
signed by the governments of the U.S.S.R.
(represented by Andrei Gromyko), the United
Kingdom (represented by Alec Douglas-Home), and
the United States (represented by Dean Rusk),
named the "Original Parties", in Moscow on August