The moratorium was one of a series of unilateral disarmament actions taken at that time, which included the 1993-94 legislation prohibiting design of low-yield nuclear weapons and the 1995-96 agreement on a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
They argued, moreover, that a zero-yield, permanent nuclear test ban is manifestly not in the United States' national interest and noted that, given international support for such a treaty, needed changes to either of those key provisions would be unlikely to be accepted by other parties.
His decision to ban all nuclear tests would preclude the U.S. from conducting even extremely low-yield tests (for example, those that produce as little of a blast as the equivalent of four pounds of high explosive) as part of the nuclear stockpile stewardship program.