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83-701: Greenhouse-Item was an American nuclear test conducted on May 25, 1951, as part of Operation Greenhouse at the Pacific Proving Ground , specifically on the island of Engebi in the Eniwetok Atoll in the Central Pacific Ocean . This test explosion was the second test of a boosted fission weapon , the second instance of artificial thermonuclear fusion , following the Greenhouse George test on May 9. In this test deuterium - tritium (D-T) gas

166-515: A nuclear triad , which may have been deployed in 2015. The first is a submarine-launched system consisting of at least four 6,000-tonne ( nuclear-powered ) ballistic missile submarines of the Arihant class . The first vessel, INS Arihant , was commissioned in August 2016. She is the first nuclear-powered submarine to be built by India. A CIA report claimed that Russia provided technological aid to

249-425: A "big" missile, India will retaliate massively to inflict unacceptable damage. In 2016, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar questioned the no-first-use policy, asking why India should "bind" itself when it is a "responsible nuclear power". Later he clarified that this was his personal opinion. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in 2019 said that in the future, India's no-first-use policy might change depending upon

332-505: A given weapon type for a country is included, as well as tests that were otherwise notable (such as the largest test ever). All yields (explosive power) are given in their estimated energy equivalents in kilotons of TNT (see TNT equivalent ). Putative tests (like Vela incident ) have not been included. India and weapons of mass destruction India possesses nuclear weapons and previously developed chemical weapons . Although India has not released any official statements about

415-501: A number of populated islands in nearby atoll formations. Though they were soon evacuated, many of the islands' inhabitants suffered from radiation burns and later from other effects such as increased cancer rate and birth defects, as did the crew of the Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryū Maru . One crewman died from radiation sickness after returning to port, and it was feared that the radioactive fish they had been carrying had made it into

498-675: A pair of series namely Pokhran I and Pokhran II . India is a member of three multilateral export control regimes — the Missile Technology Control Regime , Wassenaar Arrangement and Australia Group . It has signed and ratified the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention . India is also a subscribing state to the Hague Code of Conduct . India has signed neither

581-414: A part of its " Minimum Credible Deterrence " doctrine. India has ratified the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and pledges to abide by its obligations. There is no clear evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, that directly points toward an offensive BW program. India does possess the scientific capability and infrastructure to launch an offensive BW program. In terms of delivery, India also possesses

664-636: A peaceful nuclear explosion. The test used plutonium produced in the Canadian-supplied CIRUS reactor , and raised concerns that nuclear technology supplied for peaceful purposes could be diverted to weapons purposes. This also stimulated the early work of the Nuclear Suppliers Group . During the 1970s and the 1980s Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai , and Rajiv Gandhi opposed weaponizing its nuclear program beyond PNE and theoretical research. In 1982, Indira Gandhi refused to allow

747-576: A response to the continuing tests, the United States and Japan imposed sanctions on India, which have since been lifted. R Chidambaram , who headed India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests, said in a 1999 interview with the Press Trust of India that India is capable of producing a neutron bomb . India has a declared nuclear no-first-use policy and is in the process of developing a nuclear doctrine based on " credible minimum deterrence ." In August 1999,

830-528: A result of a scenario of a concentrated number of nuclear explosions in a nuclear holocaust , the thousands of tests, hundreds being atmospheric, did nevertheless produce a global fallout that has peaked in 1963 (the Bomb pulse ), reaching levels of about 0.15  mSv per year worldwide, or about 7% of average background radiation dose from all sources, and has slowly decreased since, with natural environmental radiation levels being around 1 mSv . This global fallout

913-468: A single salvo test; Pakistan's second and last official test exploded four different devices. Almost all lists in the literature are lists of tests; in the lists in Misplaced Pages (for example, Operation Cresset has separate items for Cremino and Caerphilly , which together constitute a single test), the lists are of explosions. Separately from these designations, nuclear tests are also often categorized by

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996-532: A speech on the occasion of Golden Jubilee celebrations of National Defence College in New Delhi on 21 October 2010, a doctrine Menon said reflected India's "strategic culture, with its emphasis on minimal deterrence. In April 2013 Shyam Saran , convener of the National Security Advisory Board , affirmed that regardless of the size of a nuclear attack against India, be it a miniaturised version or

1079-447: A variety of fissile material compositions, densities, shapes, and reflectors . They can be subcritical or supercritical, in which case significant radiation fluxes can be produced. This type of test has resulted in several criticality accidents . Subcritical (or cold) tests are any type of tests involving nuclear materials and possibly high explosives (like those mentioned above) that purposely result in no yield . The name refers to

1162-698: A variety of vehicles and launching silos. They currently consist of six different types of ballistic missiles , the Agni-I , the Agni-II , Agni-III , Agni-IV , Agni-V , Agni-P , and the Army's variant of the Prithvi missile family – the Prithvi-I. However, the Prithvi missiles are less useful for delivering nuclear weapons because they have a shorter range and must be deployed very close to

1245-716: Is believed that the Dassault Mirage 2000s and SEPECAT Jaguars of the Indian Air Force are able to provide a secondary nuclear-strike role. The SEPECAT Jaguar was designed to be able to carry and deploy nuclear weapons and the Indian Air Force has identified the jet as being capable of delivering Indian nuclear weapons. The most likely delivery method would be the use of bombs that are free-falling and unguided . Three airbases with four squadrons of Mirage 2000H (about 16 aircraft with 16 bombs from 1st and 7th squadrons of

1328-524: Is cruel to human beings". In 1992, India signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), becoming one of the original signatories of the CWC in 1993, and ratified it on 2 September 1996. According to India's ex-Army Chief General Sundarji , a country having the capability of making nuclear weapons does not need to have chemical weapons, since the dread of chemical weapons could be created only in those countries that do not have nuclear weapons. Others suggested that

1411-623: Is not a party to the NPT but is still allowed to carry out nuclear commerce with the rest of the world. Since the implementation of the NSG waiver, India has signed nuclear deals with several countries including France , United States , Mongolia , Namibia , Kazakhstan and Australia while the framework for similar deals with Canada and the United Kingdom are also being prepared. India has several laws in whole or partial measure that deal with

1494-561: Is planning a full-fledged test of the missile from a submarine and for this purpose may use the services of the Russian Navy . India's DRDO is also working on a submarine-launched ballistic missile version of the Agni-III missile, known as the Agni-III SL. According to Indian defence sources, the Agni-III SL will have a range of 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi). The new missile will complement

1577-551: Is the custodian of all of India's nuclear weapons, missiles and defense assets. It is also responsible for executing all aspects of India's nuclear policy. However, the civil leadership, in the form of the CCS ( Cabinet Committee on Security ) is the only body authorised to order a nuclear strike against another offending strike. The National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon reiterated a policy of "no first use" against nuclear weapon states and "non-use against non-nuclear weapon states" in

1660-476: Is very unlikely to develop significant nuclear innovations without testing. One other approach is to use supercomputers to conduct "virtual" testing, but codes need to be validated against test data. There have been many attempts to limit the number and size of nuclear tests; the most far-reaching is the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty of 1996, which has not, as of 2013 , been ratified by eight of

1743-609: The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty nor the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , considering both to be flawed and discriminatory. India previously possessed chemical weapons , but voluntarily destroyed its entire stockpile in 2009 — one of the seven countries to meet the OPCW extended deadline. India maintains a " no first use " nuclear policy and has developed a nuclear triad capability as

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1826-564: The Defence Research and Development Organisation to develop active nuclear weapons but also approved the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme that would develop missiles to deliver a nuclear warhead if India developed one. India also supported international nuclear non-proliferation and arms control efforts. The situation changed again in the late 1980s after the 1987 Brasstacks crisis and

1909-732: The India–Pakistan border . Additional variants of the Agni missile series have recently been inducted including the most recent, the Agni-IV and the Agni-V , which is currently being deployed. Agni-VI is also under development, with an estimated range of 10,000–12,000 km and features such as Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs) or Maneuverable reentry vehicles (MARVs). The Indian Navy has developed two sea-based delivery systems for nuclear weapons, completing Indian ambitions for

1992-497: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) approved a safeguards agreement with India under which the former will gradually gain access to India's civilian nuclear reactors . In September 2008, the Nuclear Suppliers Group granted India a waiver to access civilian nuclear technology and fuel from other countries. The implementation of this waiver makes India the only known country with nuclear weapons which

2075-551: The Los Alamos National Laboratory , said that India's assertion of having detonated a staged thermonuclear bomb was very much believable. India says that their thermonuclear device was tested at a controlled yield of 45 kt (190 TJ) because of the proximity of the Khetolai village at about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi), to ensure that the houses in that village do not suffer significant damage. Another cited reason

2158-598: The Shakti-1 thermonuclear test. India is not a signatory to either the NPT or the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) but did accede to the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in October 1963. Journalist, conspiracy theorist, and holocaust denier Gregory Douglas claims CIA officer Robert Crowley told him in an interview in 1993 that India's pursuit of the programme disturbed the United States and that

2241-520: The Vela incident . From the first nuclear test in 1945 until tests by Pakistan in 1998, there was never a period of more than 22 months with no nuclear testing. June 1998 to October 2006 was the longest period since 1945 with no acknowledged nuclear tests. A summary table of all the nuclear testing that has happened since 1945 is here: Worldwide nuclear testing counts and summary . While nuclear weapons testing did not produce scenarios like nuclear winter as

2324-518: The destroyer INS Rajput . The test was a success with the missile hitting the land based target. On 11 May 1998, India announced that it had detonated a thermonuclear bomb in its Operation Shakti tests ("Shakti-I", specifically, in Hindi the word 'Shakti' means power). Samar Mubarakmand , a Pakistani nuclear physicist, asserted that if Shakti-I had been a thermonuclear test, the device had failed to fire. However, Harold M. Agnew , former director of

2407-469: The " Annex 2 countries " required for it to take effect, including the United States. Nuclear testing has since become a controversial issue in the United States, with a number of politicians saying that future testing might be necessary to maintain the aging warheads from the Cold War . Because nuclear testing is seen as furthering nuclear arms development, many are opposed to future testing as an acceleration of

2490-486: The "circumstances". In a January 2022 statement, however, the Ministry of External Affairs reiterated India's doctrine of "maintaining a credible minimum deterrence based on a No First Use posture and non-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states". India's nuclear triad is a military force structure that includes three parts: The purpose of India's nuclear triad is to increase nuclear deterrence by reducing

2573-471: The 40th Wing at Maharajpur Air Force Station ) and Jaguar IS/IB (about 32 aircraft with 32 bombs from one squadron each at Ambala Air Force Station and Gorakhpur Air Force Station ) aircraft are believed to be assigned the nuclear strike role. The estimated 68 nuclear warheads of land-based nuclear weapons of India are under the control of and deployed by the Strategic Forces Command , using

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2656-467: The CIA assassinated Prime Minister Shastri and Homi Bhabha in 1966. India is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and four of its 17 nuclear reactors are subject to IAEA safeguards. India announced its lack of intention to accede to the NPT as late as 1997 by voting against the paragraph of a General Assembly Resolution which urged all non-signatories of the treaty to accede to it at

2739-531: The CTBT has been signed by 183 States, of which 157 have also ratified. However, for the Treaty to enter into force it needs to be ratified by 44 specific nuclear technology-holder countries. These "Annex 2 States" participated in the negotiations on the CTBT between 1994 and 1996 and possessed nuclear power or research reactors at that time. The ratification of eight Annex 2 states is still missing: China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and

2822-467: The Indian government released a draft of the doctrine which asserts that nuclear weapons are solely for deterrence and that India will pursue a policy of "retaliation only". The document also maintains that India "will not be the first to initiate a nuclear first strike , but will respond with punitive retaliation should deterrence fail" and that decisions to authorize the use of nuclear weapons would be made by

2905-590: The Japanese food supply. Castle Bravo was the worst U.S. nuclear accident, but many of its component problems—unpredictably large yields, changing weather patterns, unexpected fallout contamination of populations and the food supply—occurred during other atmospheric nuclear weapons tests by other countries as well. Concerns over worldwide fallout rates eventually led to the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which limited signatories to underground testing. Not all countries stopped atmospheric testing, but because

2988-659: The Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear explosions everywhere, including underground. For that purpose, the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization is building an international monitoring system with 337 facilities located all over the globe. 85% of these facilities are already operational. As of May 2012 ,

3071-567: The Prime Minister or his 'designated successor(s)'. According to the NRDC, despite the escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan in 2001–2002, India remained committed to its nuclear no-first-use policy. India's Strategic Nuclear Command was formally established in 2003, with an Indian Air Force officer, Air Marshal Tej Mohan Asthana, as the Commander-in-Chief. The Joint Services SNC

3154-843: The United Kingdom until 1991, the United States until 1992, and both China and France until 1996. In signing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996, these countries pledged to discontinue all nuclear testing; the treaty has not yet entered into force because of its failure to be ratified by eight countries. Non-signatories India and Pakistan last tested nuclear weapons in 1998. North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006 , 2009 , 2013 , January 2016 , September 2016 and 2017. The most recent confirmed nuclear test occurred in September 2017 in North Korea. Nuclear weapons tests have historically been divided into four categories reflecting

3237-610: The United States and the Soviet Union were responsible for roughly 86% of all nuclear tests, their compliance cut the overall level substantially. France continued atmospheric testing until 1974, and China until 1980. A tacit moratorium on testing was in effect from 1958 to 1961 and ended with a series of Soviet tests in late 1961, including the Tsar Bomba , the largest nuclear weapon ever tested. The United States responded in 1962 with Operation Dominic , involving dozens of tests, including

3320-457: The United States have signed but not ratified the Treaty; India, North Korea and Pakistan have not signed it. The following is a list of the treaties applicable to nuclear testing: Over 500 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests were conducted at various sites around the world from 1945 to 1980. As public awareness and concern mounted over the possible health hazards associated with exposure to the nuclear fallout , various studies were done to assess

3403-409: The amount of it that is necessary. Hydronuclear tests study nuclear materials under the conditions of explosive shock compression. They can create subcritical conditions, or supercritical conditions with yields ranging from negligible all the way up to a substantial fraction of full weapon yield. Critical mass experiments determine the quantity of fissile material required for criticality with

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3486-417: The arms race. In total nuclear test megatonnage , from 1945 to 1992, 520 atmospheric nuclear explosions (including eight underwater) were conducted with a total yield of 545 megatons , with a peak occurring in 1961–1962, when 340 megatons were detonated in the atmosphere by the United States and Soviet Union , while the estimated number of underground nuclear tests conducted in the period from 1957 to 1992

3569-552: The beginning of the Pakistani nuclear weapons program . In 1989, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi gave Defense Secretary Naresh Chandra approval to develop the bomb. Chandra continued the program through successive governments in the 1990s after Gandhi lost power in the 1989 general election . India most likely completed weaponized nuclear warheads around 1994. India performed further nuclear tests in 1998 (code-named " Operation Shakti ") under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee . In 1998, as

3652-402: The bulk of its chemicals for domestic consumption. It is also widely acknowledged that India has an extensive civilian chemical and pharmaceutical industry and annually exports considerable quantities of chemicals to countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Taiwan. As early as 26 June 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru , soon to be India's first Prime Minister, announced: As long as

3735-482: The burial points of all explosive devices can be connected by segments of straight lines, each of them connecting two burial points, and the total length does not exceed 40 kilometers. For nuclear weapon tests, a salvo is defined as two or more underground nuclear explosions conducted at a test site within an area delineated by a circle having a diameter of two kilometers and conducted within a total period of time of 0.1 seconds. The USSR has exploded up to eight devices in

3818-446: The capability to produce aerosols and has numerous potential delivery systems ranging from crop dusters to sophisticated ballistic missiles . No information exists in the public domain suggesting interest by the Indian government in the delivery of biological agents by these or any other means. To reiterate the latter point, in October 2002, then-President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam asserted that "India will not make biological weapons. It

3901-431: The chance of an enemy destroying all of India's nuclear forces in a first-strike attack. This ensures that India can still launch a second strike. Here are some details about India's nuclear triad: Nuclear-armed fighter-bombers were India's first and only nuclear-capable strike force until 2003 when the country's first land-based nuclear ballistic missiles were fielded. In addition to their ground-attack role, it

3984-587: The earliest possible date. India voted against the UN General Assembly resolution endorsing the CTBT , which was adopted on 10 September 1996. India objected to the lack of provision for universal nuclear disarmament "within a time-bound framework." India also demanded that the treaty ban laboratory simulations. In addition, India opposed the provision in Article XIV of the CTBT that requires India's ratification for

4067-715: The explosion of a missile launched from a submarine. Almost all new nuclear powers have announced their possession of nuclear weapons with a nuclear test. The only acknowledged nuclear power that claims never to have conducted a test was South Africa (although see Vela incident ), which has since dismantled all of its weapons. Israel is widely thought to possess a sizable nuclear arsenal, though it has never tested, unless they were involved in Vela. Experts disagree on whether states can have reliable nuclear arsenals—especially ones using advanced warhead designs, such as hydrogen bombs and miniaturized weapons—without testing, though all agree that it

4150-441: The explosion's effects, it did not give an appreciable understanding of nuclear fallout , which was not well understood by the project scientists until well after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . The United States conducted six atomic tests before the Soviet Union developed their first atomic bomb ( RDS-1 ) and tested it on August 29, 1949. Neither country had very many atomic weapons to spare at first, and so testing

4233-405: The extent of the hazard. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / National Cancer Institute study claims that nuclear fallout might have led to approximately 11,000 excess deaths, most caused by thyroid cancer linked to exposure to iodine-131 . The following list is of milestone nuclear explosions. In addition to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , the first nuclear test of

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4316-423: The fact that India has found chemical weapons dispensable highlighted its confidence in the conventional weapons system at its command. In June 1997, India declared its stock of chemical weapons (1,045 tonnes of sulphur mustard ). By the end of 2006, India had destroyed more than 75 percent of its chemical weapons/material stockpile and was granted an extension for destroying the remaining stocks by April 2009 and

4399-498: The fission core to accept the gas correctly without reducing its own efficiency. The 1951 test was primarily to test the nuclear principles involved, and to gain research data, and it was not considered a design for a weaponizable device. Even as late as 1954, no boosted weapon had entered into the nuclear-weapons stockpile, and the only use for the Greenhouse Item nuclear test had been for its research results. The "Booster" device

4482-487: The formation of these treaties. Examples can be seen in the following articles: The Partial Nuclear Test Ban treaty makes it illegal to detonate any nuclear explosion anywhere except underground, in order to reduce atmospheric fallout. Most countries have signed and ratified the Partial Nuclear Test Ban, which went into effect in October 1963. Of the nuclear states, France, China, and North Korea have never signed

4565-487: The lack of creation of a critical mass of fissile material. They are the only type of tests allowed under the interpretation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty tacitly agreed to by the major atomic powers. Subcritical tests continue to be performed by the United States, Russia, and the People's Republic of China, at least. Subcritical tests executed by the United States include: The first atomic weapons test

4648-409: The later phases of the Cold War , though, both countries developed accelerated testing programs, testing many hundreds of bombs over the last half of the 20th century. Atomic and nuclear tests can involve many hazards. Some of these were illustrated in the U.S. Castle Bravo test in 1954. The weapon design tested was a new form of hydrogen bomb, and the scientists underestimated how vigorously some of

4731-496: The magnitudes suggested a combined yield of up to 60 kilotonnes of TNT (250 TJ), consistent with the Indian announced total yield of 56 kilotonnes of TNT (230 TJ). U.S. seismologist Jack Evernden has argued that for correct estimation of yields, one should 'account properly for geological and seismological differences between test sites. However, India officially maintains that it can build thermonuclear weapons of various yields up to around 200 kt (840 TJ) based on

4814-432: The matter. In an interview in August 2009, the director for the 1998 test site preparations, K. Santhanam claimed that the yield of the thermonuclear explosion was lower than expected and that India should therefore not rush into signing the CTBT . Other Indian scientists involved in the test have disputed K. Santhanam's claim, arguing that Santhanam's claims are unscientific. British seismologist Roger Clarke argued that

4897-455: The medium or location of the test. Another way to classify nuclear tests is by the number of explosions that constitute the test. The treaty definition of a salvo test is: In conformity with treaties between the United States and the Soviet Union, a salvo is defined, for multiple explosions for peaceful purposes, as two or more separate explosions where a period of time between successive individual explosions does not exceed 5 seconds and where

4980-509: The military effects of atomic weapons ( Crossroads had involved the effect of atomic weapons on a navy, and how they functioned underwater) and to test new weapon designs. During the 1950s, these included new hydrogen bomb designs, which were tested in the Pacific, and also new and improved fission weapon designs. The Soviet Union also began testing on a limited scale, primarily in Kazakhstan . During

5063-407: The naval nuclear propulsion program. The submarines will be armed with up to 12 Sagarika (K-15) missiles armed with nuclear warheads. Sagarika is a submarine-launched ballistic missile with a range of 700 km. This missile has a length of 8.5 meters, weighs seven tonnes and can carry a pay load of up to 50 kg. Sagarika has already been test-fired from an underwater pontoon, but now DRDO

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5146-538: The nuclear research center, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research . India's loss to China in a brief Himalayan border war in October 1962, provided the New Delhi government impetus for developing nuclear weapons as a means of deterring potential Chinese aggression. By 1964 India was in a position to develop nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri opposed developing nuclear weapons but fell under intense political pressure, including elements within

5229-471: The older and less capable Sagarika submarine-launched ballistic missiles. However, the Arihant class ballistic missile submarines will be only capable of carrying a maximum of four Agni-III SL. The second is a ship-launched system based around the short-range ship-launched Dhanush ballistic missile (a variant of the Prithvi missile ). It has a range of around 300 km. In the year 2000, the short-range missile

5312-528: The purpose of the test itself. Aside from these technical considerations, tests have been conducted for political and training purposes, and can often serve multiple purposes. Computer simulation is used extensively to provide as much information as possible without physical testing. Mathematical models for such simulation model scenarios not only of performance but also of shelf life and maintenance . A theme has generally been that even though simulations cannot fully replace physical testing, they can reduce

5395-421: The ruling Indian National Congress . India was also unable to obtain security guarantees from either the United States or the Soviet Union. As a result, Shastri announced that India would pursue the capability of what it called " peaceful nuclear explosions " that could be weaponized in the future. India first tested a nuclear device in 1974 (code-named " Smiling Buddha "), under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as

5478-484: The same time constructing a civilian nuclear energy program and by extension the capability to make a nuclear bomb. This policy was motivated by a conventional weapons superiority over its rivals Pakistan and China. India built its first research reactor in 1956 and its first plutonium reprocessing plant by 1964. India's nuclear programme can trace its origins to March 1944 and its three-stage efforts in technology were established by Homi Jehangir Bhabha when he founded

5561-454: The size of its nuclear arsenal, recent estimates suggest that India has 172 nuclear weapons and has produced enough weapons-grade plutonium for up to 200 nuclear weapons. In 1999, India was estimated to have 800 kilograms (1,800 lb) of separated reactor-grade plutonium , with a total amount of 8,300 kilograms (18,300 lb) of civilian plutonium, enough for approximately 1,000 nuclear weapons. India has conducted nuclear weapons tests in

5644-501: The then four nuclear states and many non-nuclear states signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty , pledging to refrain from testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, or in outer space . The treaty permitted underground nuclear testing . France continued atmospheric testing until 1974, and China continued until 1980. Neither has signed the treaty. Underground tests conducted by the Soviet Union continued until 1990,

5727-432: The treaty to enter into force, which India argued was a violation of its sovereign right to choose whether it would sign the treaty. In early February 1997, Foreign Minister I. K. Gujral reiterated India's opposition to the treaty, saying that "India favors any step aimed at destroying nuclear weapons, but considers that the treaty in its current form is not comprehensive and bans only certain types of tests." In August 2008,

5810-455: The weapon materials would react. As a result, the explosion—with a yield of 15 Mt —was over twice what was predicted. Aside from this problem, the weapon also generated a large amount of radioactive nuclear fallout , more than had been anticipated, and a change in the weather pattern caused the fallout to spread in a direction not cleared in advance. The fallout plume spread high levels of radiation for over 100 miles (160 km), contaminating

5893-430: The world is constituted as it is, every country will have to devise and use the latest devices for its protection. I have no doubt India will develop her scientific researches and I hope Indian scientists will use the atomic force for constructive purposes. But if India is threatened, she will inevitably try to defend herself by all means at her disposal. Nehru pursued a policy of formally foregoing nuclear weapons while at

5976-493: Was 1,352 explosions with a total yield of 90 Mt. The yields of atomic bombs and thermonuclear are typically measured in different amounts. Thermonuclear bombs can be hundreds or thousands of times stronger than their atomic counterparts. Due to this, thermonuclear bombs' yields are usually expressed in megatons which is about the equivalent of 1,000,000 tons of TNT. In contrast, atomic bombs' yields are typically measured in kilotons, or about 1,000 tons of TNT. In US context, it

6059-447: Was 45.5  kilotons , about twice the yield of the unboosted bomb. The device was code-named " Booster " in its development stages, a name for the mechanism coined by Edward Teller in September 1947. Planning for it had begun in the late 1940s. According to the researcher Chuck Hansen , it was mentioned in official U.S. Atomic Energy Commission documents as early as 1947. The main problems in development were making modifications to

6142-473: Was conducted near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, during the Manhattan Project , and given the codename " Trinity ". The test was originally to confirm that the implosion-type nuclear weapon design was feasible, and to give an idea of what the actual size and effects of a nuclear explosion would be before they were used in combat against Japan. While the test gave a good approximation of many of

6225-819: Was decided during the Manhattan Project that yield measured in tons of TNT equivalent could be imprecise. This comes from the range of experimental values of the energy content of TNT, ranging from 900 to 1,100 calories per gram (3,800 to 4,600 kJ/g). There is also the issue of which ton to use, as short tons, long tons, and metric tonnes all have different values. It was therefore decided that one kiloton would be equivalent to 1.0 × 10 calories (4.2 × 10  kJ). The nuclear powers have conducted more than 2,000 nuclear test explosions (numbers are approximate, as some test results have been disputed): There may also have been at least three alleged but unacknowledged nuclear explosions (see list of alleged nuclear tests ) including

6308-700: Was detonated at 6:17 am on May 25, 1951, from a 200-foot-tall (61 m) shot tower on the island of Engebi in the Enewetok Atoll, and its fusion fuel was injected by means of a cryogenic pump at the base of the tower. Nuclear testing The first nuclear device was detonated as a test by the United States at the Trinity site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, with a yield approximately equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT . The first thermonuclear weapon technology test of an engineered device, codenamed Ivy Mike ,

6391-621: Was expected to achieve 100 percent destruction within that time frame. India informed the United Nations in May 2009 that it had destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons in compliance with the international Chemical Weapons Convention. With this India has become the third country after South Korea and Albania to do so. This was cross-checked by inspectors of the United Nations. India has an advanced commercial chemical industry , and produces

6474-464: Was injected into the enriched uranium core of a nuclear fission bomb . The extreme heat of the fissioning bomb produced thermonuclear fusion reactions within the D-T gas, but not enough of them to be considered a full nuclear fusion bomb. This fusion reaction released a large number of free neutrons , which greatly increased the efficiency of the nuclear fission reaction. The explosive yield of this bomb

6557-619: Was one of the main drivers for the ban of nuclear weapons testing, particularly atmospheric testing. It has been estimated that by 2020 up to 2.4 million people have died as a result of nuclear weapons testing. There are many existing anti-nuclear explosion treaties, notably the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty . These treaties were proposed in response to growing international concerns about environmental damage among other risks. Nuclear testing involving humans also contributed to

6640-501: Was relatively infrequent (when the U.S. used two weapons for Operation Crossroads in 1946, they were detonating over 20% of their current arsenal). However, by the 1950s the United States had established a dedicated test site on its own territory ( Nevada Test Site ) and was also using a site in the Marshall Islands ( Pacific Proving Grounds ) for extensive atomic and nuclear testing. The early tests were used primarily to discern

6723-407: Was test-fired from INS Subhadra (a Sukanya class patrol craft ). INS Subhadra was modified for the test and the missile was launched from the reinforced helicopter deck. The results were considered partially successful. In 2004, the missile was again tested from INS Subhadra and this time the results were reported successful. In December 2005 the missile was tested again, but this time from

6806-563: Was tested at the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands on November 1, 1952 (local date), also by the United States. The largest nuclear weapon ever tested was the Tsar Bomba of the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemlya on October 30, 1961, with the largest yield ever seen, an estimated 50–58 megatons . With the advent of nuclear technology and its increasing impact an anti-nuclear movement formed and in 1963, three (UK, US, Soviet Union) of

6889-660: Was that radioactivity released from yields significantly more than 45 Kilotons might not have been contained fully. After the Pokhran-II tests, Rajagopala Chidambaram , former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India said that India has the capability to build thermonuclear bombs of any yield at will. The yield of India's hydrogen bomb test remains highly debatable among the Indian science community and international scholars. The question of politicisation and disputes between Indian scientists further complicated

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