Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Gerboise Bleue (French: [ʒɛʁbwaz blø]; lit. ' Blue Jerboa ') was the codename of the first French nuclear test.It was conducted by the Nuclear Experiments Operational Group (GOEN), a unit of the Joint Special Weapons Command [1] on 13 February 1960, at the Saharan Military Experiments Centre near Reggane, French Algeria in the Sahara desert region of the Tanezrouft, during the Algerian War.
France executed nuclear weapons tests in the areas of Reggane and In Ekker in Algeria and the Mururoa and Fangataufa Atolls in French Polynesia, from 13 February 1960 through 27 January 1996. These totaled 210 tests with 210 device explosions, 50 in the atmosphere.
France; Nuclear program start date: 26 December 1954: First nuclear weapon test: February 13, 1960: First thermonuclear weapon test: August 24, 1968: Last nuclear test: January 27, 1996: Largest yield test: 2.6 Mt (August 24, 1968) Total tests: 210: Peak stockpile: 540 (1992) Current stockpile: 290 warheads (2023) [1] Current strategic arsenal ...
Canopus (or Opération Canopus) was the codename of the first French two-stage thermonuclear test. It was conducted by the Pacific Carrier Battle Group (nicknamed Alfa Force) on 24 August 1968, at the Pacific Experiments Centre near Fangataufa atoll, French Polynesia. [1]
During the 1958 moratorium on nuclear testing, a number of sub-critical tests were performed underground to learn more about the dynamics of explosions and the metallurgy of plutonium. The US's first nuclear weapons lab, founded in the Manhattan Project in high secrecy. Tech Area 49 is an open area south of the lab, where zero-yield tests were ...
The France's 1966–1970 nuclear test series [1] was a group of 22 nuclear tests conducted in 1966–1970. These tests followed the In Ekker series and preceded the 1971–1974 French nuclear tests series.
On July 2, 1966, the first aerial nuclear test took place on Moruroa atoll in French Polynesia. Two years later, on August 24, 1968, the first H-bomb test took place on the Fangataufa atoll, codenamed Operation Canopus. A total of 46 aerial nuclear tests were carried out in Polynesia, using a variety of techniques: barge testing; tethered ...
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 nuclear weapon in the 1980s. [1] [21] India and Pakistan currently have around one hundred nuclear weapons each. [19]