Welcome to the Atomic Forum. This site is an illustrated guide to nuclear weapons, particularly the testing of them which began in 1945 with the Trinity test. This is also home to the Atomic Forum discussion board where people from all over the world can discuss various aspects surrounding nuclear weapons. Please visit and register at the board to participate in on going discussions.
Much of the history of nuclear weapons remains highly secretive and largely classified by the governments that developed them. Despite the end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons are by no means obsolete, both technically and politically, and have a powerful effect on international politics and strategic stability to this day.
In this new era of global terrorism and newer regimes developing weapons of mass destruction, the threat of nuclear weapons has never been greater. Tensions soar to this day over the appearance of more nations with nuclear ambitions, nations who refuse transparent oversight by international regulators and threaten other nations in their regions.
The purposes behind the forum are many. Among them are to objectively discuss, learn, and archive information related to nuclear weapons development, past and present. This information is essential in gaining greater knowledge and a better understanding of nuclear weapons and issues that evolve and revolve around them. An equally important factor is to encourage realistic, moderate, and scholarly considerations of the roles of nuclear weapons in a highly complex, global scale of reasoning.
Documented, original sources of information concerning these weapons remain largely secret, though newly declassified data are slowly emerging. As a result, most information about them is scattered around the world outside of the common reaches of many. A primary motive of the Atomic Forum is to bring together international contributors to the archiving of this recently emerging data, earlier locked away for decades under strict, central government control.
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The following pages are overviews of the nuclear weapons programs of the United States, Russia, Great Britain, France, The People's Republic of China, India and Pakistan. The content on these pages spans from the initial research and development of the first nuclear weapons to overviews of each nation's nuclear arsenal. Major events that occurred during the nuclear proliferation time line, as well as once highly classified and sensitive information, is covered in the following archive.
Over 2,050 nuclear devices have been detonated between 1945 to 2006. The majority of these tests were weapons development and effects experiments, the purposes of which was to develop a reliable nuclear deterrence for its respective nation. Some of these tests were also for peaceful purposes meant to explore the concept of using nuclear devices for massive earthmoving projects, gas stimulation, and other public works.
Between 1945 and 1963, almost all nuclear testing was conducted in the atmosphere. These devices were detonated on towers, dropped from aircraft, exploded under the ocean, suspended underneath a balloon, or launched by rockets. The Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater and in outer-space. Despite this the nations of France and China continued to test nuclear weapons in the atmosphere well in the 1970s and 1980, respectively. Almost half of the nuclear weapons ever detonated were by the United States.
As of 2006 there are an estimated 26,854 nuclear weapons stockpiled by the 5 major nuclear weapons states, 97% of the which belong to the United States and Russia. The stockpiles of India and Pakistan are minuscule compared to those of the United States and Russia. A single U.S. Trident submarine carries more nuclear warheads then the combined stockpiles of India and Pakistan. The peak number of global nuclear weapons reached 70,000 in 1986 and non-proliferation treaties and arms control agreements have dramatically decreased this number since.
These pages chronicle detailed accounts, objectives, and effects of individual nuclear tests to important political and scientific events and decisions the consequences of which are still being felt to this day. The following pages are perpetually being updated and are by no means a completed resource on the long, complex, and secretive history of nuclear proliferation. They represent the main historical, technical, and archival resource of Atomic Forum. This archive of data could not be made possible without the great assistance of the members of the Atomic Forum community.
Major Nuclear Powers
United States of America
The United States became the world’s first nuclear power when it successfully detonated an atomic device in the New Mexico desert in 1945. The test was the product of 6 years of research and development code named the Manhattan Project. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Operation Crossroads was conducted at Bikini Atoll. This was the first of many nuclear weapon testing operations conducted by the United States between 1945 and 1991. The United States conducted 1,030 nuclear tests during this period, 216 of these were in the atmosphere.
The Soviet Union detonated an atomic device in 1949 and became the world’s second nuclear power. This detonation came as a surprise to the West as it had been predicted that the Soviet Union would not develop nuclear weapons for at least a further 2 years. This was mostly a result of Soviet spies and Communist sympathizers stealing information from the Los Alamos Laboratory during the U.S. Manhattan Project. The Soviet Union then took the world by surprise again when it detonated a hydrogen bomb in 1953. Today, Russia has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.
Despite paving the way for nuclear weapons research in the 1930’s, Great Britain failed to produce nuclear weapons of its own until 1952. Headed by the brilliant physicist William Penney, Britain developed atomic weapons without the assistance of the United States, and later developed the hydrogen bomb without U.S. help. Despite these achievements, Great Britain had little to show for the efforts as the designs had been abandoned in favor of American weapons after the restoration of US-UK nuclear cooperation in the late 1950s. Today, Great Britain has approximately 200 nuclear weapons in the arsenal.
France became the world’s fourth nuclear power when it successfully detonated a large atomic device in the Sahara Desert in 1960. France developed nuclear weapons to maintain a nuclear deterrent independent of the United States and Great Britain. Once Algeria gained independence, France continued to test nuclear weapons in the South Pacific at Mururoa Atoll. Despite ignoring worldwide protest, France conducted atmospheric nuclear testing until 1974. In 1995, President Jacques Chirac authorized nuclear testing after observing a brief moratorium. France soon after signed the CTBT and dismantled the nuclear base at Mururoa Atoll.
The People’s Republic of China became the second Communist nation to acquire nuclear weapons when it detonated an atomic device in 1964. After initial Soviet aid, China managed to develop nuclear weapons using very basic and crude methods. China developed thermonuclear weapons only 32 months after its first atomic explosion. Today, China is conducting a technological modernization of its nuclear arsenal and it is estimated China posses approximately 200 nuclear weapons.
In the 1950s, India acquired nuclear technologies aimed to encourage civil use of nuclear energy as part of the “Atoms for Peace” non-proliferation program. Little interest was shown in developing nuclear weapons until India successfully detonated a nuclear device on May 18, 1974. The test was described by the Indian government as a “peaceful nuclear explosion”. In the 1980s India began research on thermonuclear weapon capability and later conducted Operation Shatki, a series of 5 nuclear detonations. A few weeks after Operation Shatki was conducted, Pakistan tested 5 nuclear devices of its own. India and Pakistan, sworn enemies, were now both nuclear powers.
Headed by A.Q. Khan, Pakistan became the first Islamic nation to acquire nuclear weapons when it successfully detonated 5 nuclear devices under the Ras Koh mountains in 1998, one of which was claimed to be thermonuclear. The Pakistani nuclear weapons program began in 1972, shortly after the lost of East Pakistan to India in the 1971 war. The nuclear tests of 1998 came only two weeks after India conducted 5 nuclear tests of its own. In 2001, the missile forces of both Pakistan and India were put on alert as tensions grew in the region. However, in recent years diplomatic relations have been improving as both sides move toward avoiding a nuclear conflict.
On October 9, 2006, at 4:21:18 (UTC), North Korea detonated a small nuclear device under Mount Mantap in the North Hamgyeong Province. The test came 6 days after North Korea declared its intention of conducting a nuclear test. International condemnation of the nuclear test by governments all over the world has been nearly unanimous. China, North Korea's closest ally and primary benefactor, also expressed condemnation for the nuclear test. After nearly 13 years of speculation surrounding North Korea's nuclear capabilities, the October 9th nuclear test confirmed North Korea as the world's eighth declared nuclear power.
