In the following subsections, a selection of significant tests (by no means exhaustive) is listed, representative of the testing effort in each nuclear country.
United States The standard official list of tests for American devices is arguably the
United States Department of Energy DoE-209 document. Some significant tests conducted by the United States include: (1946) was the first underwater nuclear explosion. • The
Trinity test on 16 July 1945, near
Socorro, New Mexico, was the first-ever test of a nuclear weapon (yield of around 20 kilotons). • The
Operation Crossroads series in July 1946, at
Bikini Atoll in the
Marshall Islands, was the first postwar test series and one of the largest military operations in U.S. history. • The
Operation Sandstone test series conducted in April and May 1948 at
Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, was a critical step in advancing nuclear weapons development. Overseen by Joint Task Force 7 (JTF-7), the operation consisted of three atomic detonations, X-RAY, YOKE, and ZEBRA designed to evaluate new bomb designs with increased efficiency and improved fissile material usage. • The
Operation Ranger test series was the fourth American
nuclear test operation. It was conducted between January 27th and February 6th, 1951 and was the first series to be carried out at the
Nevada Test Site. All the bombs were dropped by
B-50D bombers and exploded in the open air over
Frenchman Flat (
Area 5). • The
Operation Greenhouse shots of May 1951, at
Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, included the first
boosted fission weapon test (named
Item) and a scientific test (named
George) which proved the feasibility of thermonuclear weapons. • The
Ivy Mike shot of 1 November 1952, at
Enewetak Atoll, was the first full test of a
Teller-Ulam design staged hydrogen bomb, with a yield of 10 megatons. This was not a deployable weapon. With its full
cryogenic equipment it weighed about 82 tons. • The
Castle Bravo shot of 1 March 1954, at
Bikini Atoll, was the first test of a deployable (solid fuel) thermonuclear weapon, and also (accidentally) the largest weapon ever tested by the United States (15 megatons). It was also the single largest U.S. radiological accident in connection with nuclear testing. The unanticipated yield, and a change in the weather, resulted in
nuclear fallout spreading eastward onto the inhabited
Rongelap and
Rongerik atolls, which were soon evacuated. Many of the Marshall Islands natives have since suffered from
birth defects and have received some compensation from the
federal government of the United States. A
Japanese fishing boat, the
Daigo Fukuryū Maru, also came into contact with the fallout, which caused many of the crew to grow ill; one eventually died. The crew's exposure was referenced in the film
Godzilla as a criticism of American nuclear tests in the Pacific. • The
Operation Plumbbob series of May–October 1957 is considered the biggest, longest, and most controversial test series that occurred within the continental United States. Rainier Mesa, Frenchman Flat, and Yucca Flat were all used for the 29 different atmospheric explosions. • Shot
Argus I of
Operation Argus, on 27 August 1958, was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon in
outer space when a 1.7-kiloton warhead was detonated at 200 kilometers altitude over the South
Atlantic Ocean during a series of
high-altitude nuclear explosions. • , Sunset bomb detonation.Shot
Frigate Bird of
Operation Dominic on 6 May 1962, was the only U.S. test of an operational
ballistic missile with a live nuclear warhead (yield of 600 kilotons), at
Johnston Atoll in the Pacific. In general, missile systems were tested without live warheads and warheads were tested separately for safety concerns. In the early 1960s there were mounting questions about how the systems would behave under combat conditions (when they were
mated, in military parlance), and this test was meant to dispel these concerns. However, the warhead had to be somewhat modified before its use, and the missile was only a
SLBM (and not an
ICBM), so by itself, it did not satisfy all concerns. • Shot
Sedan of
Operation Storax on 6 July 1962 (yield of 104 kilotons), was an attempt at showing the feasibility of using nuclear weapons for civilian, peaceful purposes as part of
Operation Plowshare. In this instance, a 1280-feet-in-diameter and 320-feet-deep
explosion crater, morphologically similar to an
impact crater, was created at the Nevada Test Site. • Shot
Divider of
Operation Julin on 23 September 1992, at the Nevada Test Site, was the last U.S. nuclear test. Described as a "test to ensure safety of deterrent forces", the series was interrupted by the beginning of negotiations over the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
Soviet Union (indicated in red), attached to
Kurchatov (along the
Irtysh river), and near
Semey, as well as
Karagandy, and
Astana. The site comprised an area
the size of Wales. After the fall of the USSR, the American government (as a member of the International Consortium
International Science and Technology Center) hired top scientists in
Sarov (aka Arzamas-16, the Soviet equivalent of Los Alamos and thus sometimes called
Los Arzamas) to draft documents about the history of the Soviet atomic program. One of the documents was the definitive list of Soviet nuclear tests. and one list lists 13 other tests which apparently failed to provide any yield. The source for that was the well respected
Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces which confirms 11 of the 13; those 11 are in the Wikipedia lists. The
Soviet Union conducted 715 nuclear tests (by the official count) between 1949 and 1990, including 219 atmospheric, underwater, and space tests. Most of them took place at the
Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan and the
Northern Test Site at
Novaya Zemlya. Additional industrial tests were conducted at various locations in Russia and Kazakhstan, while a small number of tests were conducted in
Ukraine,
Uzbekistan, and
Turkmenistan. In addition, the
large-scale military exercise was conducted by
Soviet army to explore the possibility of defensive and offensive
warfare operations on the nuclear battlefield. The exercise, under code name of
Snezhok (Snowball), involved detonation of a nuclear bomb twice as powerful as the one used in
Nagasaki and approximately 45,000 soldiers coming through the
epicenter immediately after the blast The exercise was conducted on September 14, 1954, under command of
Marshal Georgy Zhukov to the north of
Totskoye village in
Orenburg Oblast,
Russia. Some significant Soviet tests include: •
Operation First Lightning/RDS-1 (known as Joe 1 in the West), August 29, 1949: first Soviet nuclear test. •
RDS-6s (known as
Joe 4 in the West), August 12, 1953: first Soviet thermonuclear test using a sloyka (layer cake) design. The design proved to be unscalable into megaton yields, but it was air-deployable. •
RDS-37, November 22, 1955: first Soviet multi-megaton, true hydrogen bomb test using
Andrei Sakharov's third idea, essentially a re-invention of the Teller-Ulam. •
Tsar Bomba, October 30, 1961: largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, with a design yield of 100 Mt, de-rated to 50 Mt for the test drop. •
Chagan, January 15, 1965: large cratering experiment as part of
Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy program, which created an artificial lake. The last Soviet test took place on October 24, 1990. After the dissolution of the USSR in 1992, Ukraine and Russia inherited the USSR's nuclear stockpile, though Ukraine later handed theirs over to the latter, while Kazakhstan inherited the Semipalatinsk nuclear test area, as well as the
Baikonur Cosmodrome, the
Sary Shagan missile/radar test area and three ballistic missile fields. Semipalatinsk included at least the one unexploded device, later blown up with conventional explosives by a combined US–Kazakh team. No testing has occurred in the former territory of the USSR since its dissolution.
United Kingdom The United Kingdom has conducted 45 tests (12 in Australian territory, including 3 in the
Montebello Islands of
Western Australia and 9 in mainland
South Australia (7 at
Maralinga and 2 at
Emu Field); 9 in the
Line Islands of the central Pacific (3 at
Malden Island and 6 at
Kiritimati/Christmas Island); and 24 in the U.S. as part of joint test series). Often excluded from British totals are the 31 safety tests of
Operation Vixen in Maralinga. British test series include: •
Operation Hurricane, October 3, 1952 (UK's first atomic bomb) •
Operation Totem, 1953 •
Operation Mosaic, 1956 •
Operation Buffalo, 1956 •
Operation Antler, 1957 •
Operation Grapple, 1957–1958 (Included the UK's first hydrogen bomb,
Grapple X/Round C) Last test:
Julin Bristol, November 26, 1991, vertical shaft. Atmospheric tests involving nuclear material but conventional explosions: •
Operation Kittens, 1953–1961 (initiator tests using conventional explosive) •
Operation Rats, 1956–1960 (conventional explosions to study dispersal of uranium) •
Operation Tims, 1955–1963 (conventional explosions for tamper, plutonium compression trials) •
Operation Vixen, 1959–1963 (effects of accidental fire or explosion on nuclear weapons)
France France conducted 210 nuclear tests between February 13, 1960 and January 27, 1996. Four were tested at
Reggane,
French Algeria, 13 at
In Ekker, Algeria and the rest at
Moruroa and
Fangataufa Atolls in
French Polynesia. Often skipped in lists are the 5 safety tests at Adrar Tikertine in Algeria. •
Operation Agathe, November 7, 1961 and 12 more: In Ekker, Algeria; underground •
Operation Aldébaran, July 2, 1966 and 45 more: Moruroa and Fangataufa; in the atmosphere; •
Canopus first hydrogen bomb: August 24, 1968 (Fangataufa) •
Operation Achille June 5, 1975 and 146 more: Moruroa and Fangataufa; underground •
Operation Xouthos last test: January 27, 1996 (Fangataufa)
China The foremost list of Chinese tests compiled by the
Federation of American Scientists skips over two Chinese tests listed by others. The
People's Republic of China conducted 45 tests (23 atmospheric and 22 underground, all conducted at
Lop Nur Nuclear Weapons Test Base, in Malan,
Xinjiang) •
596 First test – October 16, 1964 • Film is now available of 1966 tests here at time 09:00 and another test later in this film. •
Test No. 6, First hydrogen bomb test – June 17, 1967 •
CHIC-16, 200 kt-1 Mt atmospheric test – June 17, 1974 •
#21, Largest hydrogen bomb tested by China (4 megatons) - November 17, 1976 •
#29, Last atmospheric test – October 16, 1980. This is to date the last atmospheric nuclear test by any country. •
#45, Last test – July 29, 1996, underground.
India India announced it had conducted a test of a single device in 1974 near Pakistan's
eastern border under the codename
Operation Smiling Buddha. After 24 years, India publicly announced five further nuclear tests on May 11 and May 13, 1998. The official number of Indian nuclear tests is six, conducted under two different code-names and at different times. • May 18, 1974:
Operation Smiling Buddha (type: implosion, plutonium and underground). • May 11, 1998:
Operation Shakti (type: implosion, 3 uranium and 2 plutonium devices, all underground).
Pakistan Pakistan conducted 6 official tests, under 2 different code names, in the final week of May 1998. From 1983 to 1994, around 24 nuclear cold tests were carried out by Pakistan; these remained unannounced and classified until 2000. In May 1998, Pakistan responded publicly by testing 6 nuclear devices. • March 11, 1983:
Kirana-I (type: implosion,
non-fissioned (plutonium) and underground). The 24 underground cold tests of nuclear devices were performed near the
Sargodha Air Force Base. • May 28, 1998:
Chagai-I (type: implosion,
HEU and underground). One underground horizontal-shaft tunnel test (inside a granite mountain) of boosted fission devices at Koh Kambaran in the
Ras Koh Hills in Chagai District of Balochistan Province. The announced yield of the five devices was a total of 40–45 kilotonnes with the largest having a yield of approximately 30–45 kilotonnes. An independent assessment however put the test yield at no more than 12 kt and the maximum yield of a single device at only 9 kt as opposed to 35 kt as claimed by Pakistani authorities. According to
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the maximum yield was only 2–10 kt as opposed to the claim of 35 kt and the total yield of all tests was no more than 8–15 kt. • May 30, 1998:
Chagai-II (type: implosion, plutonium device and underground). One underground vertical-shaft tunnel test of a miniaturized fission device having an announced yield of approximately 18–20 kilotonnes, carried out in the
Kharan Desert in
Kharan District, Balochistan Province. and the
United States Geological Survey (USGS). The tremor occurred at 11:57 local time (02:57
UTC) and the USGS said the
hypocenter of the event was only one
kilometer deep.
South Korea's defense ministry said the event reading indicated a blast of six to seven
kilotons. On September 9, 2016, North Korea announced another successful nuclear weapon test at the Punggye-ri Test Site. This is the first warhead the state claims to be able to mount to a missile or long-range rocket previously tested in June 2016. Estimates for the explosive yield range from 20 to 30 kt and coincided with a 5.3 magnitude earthquake in the region. On September 3, 2017, North Korea successfully detonated its first weapon self-designated as a hydrogen bomb. Initial yield estimates place it at 100 kt. Reports indicate that the test blast caused a magnitude 6.3 earthquake, and possibly resulted in a cave-in at the test site. ==Alleged tests==