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List of nuclear weapons tests


Nuclear weapons testing according to the standard definition used in treaty language for the space/time requirement 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 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 second.

This definition is inclusive of "zero yield" safety tests of warheads, whether the test is successful (there is no nuclear yield) or the test is unsuccessful (there is a nuclear yield). It does not include hydronuclear, cold or subcritical tests because no nuclear explosions are possible, even in failure. In these sorts of tests there may be small amounts of chain reaction occurring, but they stop before materially adding to the chemical explosion that causes them. The line here is finely drawn, but, among other things, subcritical testing is not prohibited by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, while safety tests are.

The table in this section summarizes all worldwide nuclear testing (including the two bombs dropped in combat which were not tests). The country names are links to summary articles for each country, which may in turn be used to drill down to test series articles which contain details on every known nuclear explosion and test. The notes attached to various table cells detail how the numbers therein are arrived at. As of 1993, worldwide, 520 atmospheric nuclear explosions (including 8 underwater) have been conducted with a total yield of 545 megaton (Mt): 217 Mt from fission and 328 Mt from fusion, while the estimated number of underground nuclear tests conducted in the period from 1957 to 1992 is 1,352 explosions with a total yield of 90 Mt.

In the following subsections, a selection of significant tests (by no means exhaustive) are listed, representative of the testing effort in each nuclear country.


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