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This timeline of nuclear weapons development is a chronological catalog of the evolution of nuclear weapons rooting from the development of the science surrounding nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. In addition to the scientific advancements, this timeline also includes several political events relating to the development of nuclear weapons.
Despite having an almost-exact explosive-yield and assembly method as Little Boy, the first nuclear weapon ever deployed in combat, the W9 nuclear artillery-shell test-fired during Operation Upshot-Knothole series of tests was far smaller and lighter than its predecessors; a result of the evolving efficiencies of new nuclear-weapon designs.
France became a nuclear power in 1960, and French nuclear stockpiles peaked at just over 500 nuclear weapons in 1992. [1] China developed its first nuclear weapon in 1964; its nuclear stockpile increased until the early 1980s, when it stabilized at between 200 and 260. [1] India became a nuclear power in 1974, while Pakistan developed its first ...
March 2: John R. Dunning's team at Columbia University verifies Niels Bohr's hypothesis that uranium 235 is responsible for fission by slow neutrons. [10]March: University of Birmingham-based scientists Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls author the Frisch–Peierls memorandum, calculate that an atomic bomb might need as little as 1 pound (0.45 kg) of enriched uranium to work.
It led to the building of larger single-purpose production reactors, such as the X-10 Pile, for the production of weapons-grade plutonium for use in the first nuclear weapons. The United States tested the first nuclear weapon in July 1945, the Trinity test, with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki taking place one month later.
The first nuclear explosive devices provided the basic building blocks of future weapons. Pictured is the Gadget device being prepared for the Trinity nuclear test.. Nuclear weapons design are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package [1] of a nuclear weapon to detonate.
The Strategic Air Command Atomic Weapons Requirements Study for 1959, uncovered and published by the National Security Archive, provides the most comprehensive and detailed list of the U.S.' Cold ...
First nuclear weapons test, conducted as part of the Manhattan Project. Tested the Mark 3 Fat Man design. Crossroads: 1946 2: 2: 2: 21 42: First postwar test series. Sandstone: 1948 3: 3: 3: 18 to 49 104: The first use of "levitated" cores made of oralloy. Tested components for Mark 4 design. Ranger: 1951 5: 5: 5: 1 to 22 40: First tests at the ...