List of nuclear weapons tests of the Soviet Union explained

The nuclear weapons tests of the Soviet Union were performed between 1949 and 1990 as part of the nuclear arms race. The Soviet Union conducted 715 nuclear tests using 969 total devices by official count, including 219 atmospheric, underwater, and space tests and 124 peaceful use tests.[1] Most of the tests took place at the Southern Test Site in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan and the Northern Test Site at Novaya Zemlya. Other tests took place at various locations within the Soviet Union, including now-independent Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Turkmenistan.

List

- !style="background:#ffdead;" Series or years !style="background:#efefef;" Years covered !style="background:#ffdead;" Tests[2] !style="background:#efefef;" Devices fired !style="background:#ffdead;" Devices with unknown yield !style="background:#efefef;" Peaceful use tests !style="background:#ffdead;" Non-PTBT tests[3] !style="background:#efefef;" class="unsortable" Yield range (kilotons) [4] !style="background:#ffdead;" Total yield (kilotons) [5] !style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;" class="unsortable" Notes - 1949–1951 1949–1951 22 to 42 There were no Soviet tests in 1950. - 1953 1953 2 to 400 - 1954 1954 small to 62 - 1955 1955 0 to 1,600 - 1956 1956 small to 900 - 1957 1957 small to 2,900 - 1958 1958 0 to 2,900 1959 and 1960 have no testing, a bilateral moratorium between the USSR and the US, officially beginning 31 Oct 1958. - 1961 1961 small to 50,000 The USSR ended its participation in the voluntary testing moratorium on 1 September 1961. - K project 1961–1962 1 to 300 - 1962 1962 small to 24,200 The Soviets executed no tests in 1963. - 1964 1964 small to 47 - 1965 1965 small to 140 - 1966 1966 1 to 700 - 1967 1967 small to 260 - 1968 1968 small to 165 - 1969 1969 6 to 540 - 1970 1970 small to 2,200 - 1971 1971 small to 2,450 - 1972 1972 small to 1,120 - 1973 1973 small to 4,000 - 1974 1974 small to 2,300 - 1975 1975 small to 1,300 - 1976 1976 small to 130 - 1977 1977 small to 120 - 1978 1978 small to 180 - 1979 1979 small to 150 - 1980 1980 small to 200 - 1981 1981 small to 150 - 1982 1982 2 to 145 - 1983 1983 0 to 150 - 1984 1984 1 to 150 - 1985 1985 1 to 114 There was no Soviet testing in 1986. - 1987 1987 0 to 150 - 1988 1988 small to 150 - 1989 1989 4 to 118 - 1990 1990 0 to 70 The USSR announced Soviet ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and ended testing on 24 October 1990. - class="sortbottom" Totals 1949-Aug-29 to
1991-May-01 		727 981 248 156 229 0 to 50,000 296,837 Total country yield is 54.9% of all nuclear testing.

See also

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions: 1949 through 1990. The Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy, and Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Sarov, Russia. V. N.. Mikhailov. 1996. https://web.archive.org/web/20060622055801/http://npc.sarov.ru/english/issues/peaceful/peaceful_e.pdf . 2006-06-22 . Official numbers and those in the table differ due to eleven tests, all fizzles, cited in other references and the one bomb left in its shaft when the Russians abandoned the Semipalatinsk site to Kazakhstan.
  2. Includes all tests with potential for nuclear fission or fusion explosion, including combat use, singleton tests, salvo tests, zero yield fails, safety experiments, and bombs incapacitated by accidents but still intended to be fired. It does not include hydronuclear and subcritical tests, and misfires of a device which was subsequently fired successfully.
  3. Number of tests which would have been in violation of the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, such as atmospheric, space or underwater tests. Some "peaceful use" cratering tests which should have been violations were protested, and later quietly dropped.
  4. "Small" refers to a value greater than zero but less than 0.5 kt.
  5. Some yields are described like "< 20 kt"; such are scored at one half of the numeric amount, i.e., yield of 10k in this example. "Unknown yield" adds nothing to the total.

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