List of nuclear weapons tests of Pakistan explained

Chagai-I
Country:Pakistan
Test Site:Ras Koh, Pakistan
Period:1998
Number Of Tests:1 (5 Devices fired)
Test Type:Underground tests (tunnel)
Max Yield:32ktTNT
Device Type:Fission

The nuclear weapons tests of Pakistan refers to a test programme directed towards the development of nuclear explosives and investigation of the effects of nuclear explosions. The programme was suggested by Munir Ahmad Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), as early as 1977.[1]

The first subcritical testing was carried out in 1983 by PAEC, codenamed Kirana-I, and continued until the 1990s under the government of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto.[1] [2] Further claims of conducting subcritical tests at Kahuta were made in 1984 by the Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL) but were dismissed by the Government of Pakistan.

The Pakistan Government, under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, authorized the programme jointly under PAEC and KRL, assisted by the Corps of Engineers in 1998. There were six nuclear tests performed under this programme, codenamed Chagai-I, and Chagai-II. After the Prime Minister of India, Atal Vajpayee made a state visit to Pakistan to meet with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, both countries signed a nuclear testing control treaty, the Lahore Declaration in 1999.[3]

Testing series

Chagai-I

The Pakistan's Chagai-I nuclear test series was a single nuclear test conducted in 1998.

See also: Pakistan and weapons of mass destruction.

Pakistan's Chagai I series tests and detonations
These five devices constitute a single salvo test under the definition of "test" in List of nuclear weapons tests.
- !style="background:#ffdead;" Name [4] !style="background:#efefef;" Date time (UT) !style="background:#ffdead;" Local time zone[5] [6] !style="background:#efefef;" Location[7] !style="background:#ffdead;" Elevation + height [8] !style="background:#efefef;" Delivery, [9]
Purpose [10] !style="background:#efefef;" 		Device[11] !style="background:#ffdead;" Yield[12] !style="background:#efefef;" class="unsortable" Fallout[13] !style="background:#ffdead;" class="unsortable" References !style="background:#efefef;" class="unsortable" Notes - ! Chagai 1 - 1 10:16:15.8 PKT
(+5 hrs) 		Ras Koh, Pakistan 28.7927°N 64.9457°W 1298m (4,259feet) + tunnel,
Boosted fission device. Notice debris from light rock band slumped downhill from shaking. No official word on what happened in the test. A. Q. Khan, well connected but considered unreliable, says 1 large and 4 small devices detonated. - ! Chagai 1 - 2 10:16:15.8 PKT
(+5 hrs) 		Ras Koh, Pakistan 28.7927°N 64.9457°W 1298m (4,259feet) + tunnel,
Boosted fission device. Notice debris from light rock band slumped downhill from shaking. - ! Chagai 1 - 3 10:16:15.8 PKT
(+5 hrs) 		Ras Koh, Pakistan 28.7927°N 64.9457°W 1298m (4,259feet) + tunnel,
Boosted fission device. - ! Chagai 1 - 4 10:16:15.8 PKT
(+5 hrs) 		Ras Koh, Pakistan 28.7927°N 64.9457°W 1298m (4,259feet) + tunnel,
Boosted fission device. - ! Chagai 1 - 5 10:16:15.8 PKT
(+5 hrs) 		Ras Koh, Pakistan 28.7927°N 64.9457°W 1298m (4,259feet) + tunnel,
Boosted fission device.

Chagai II

Chagai II
Picture Description:Satellite image of Kharan Desert
Country:Pakistan
Test Site:Kharan Desert, Pakistan
Period:1998
Number Of Tests:1
Max Yield:15ktTNT
Previous Series:Chagai I
Device Type:Fission

The Pakistan's Chagai II nuclear test series was a single nuclear test conducted in 1998. These tests followed the Chagai-I series .

The Pakistan test series summary table is below.

The detonations in the Pakistan's Chagai-II series are listed below:

Pakistan's Chagai II series tests and detonations
- !style="background:#ffdead;" Name [14] !style="background:#efefef;" Date time (UT) !style="background:#ffdead;" Local time zone [15] !style="background:#efefef;" Location [16] !style="background:#ffdead;" Elevation + height [17] !style="background:#efefef;" Delivery [18] !style="background:#ffdead;" Purpose [19] !style="background:#efefef;" Device [20] !style="background:#ffdead;" Yield [21] !style="background:#efefef;" Fallout [22] !style="background:#ffdead;" class="unsortable" References !style="background:#efefef;" class="unsortable" Notes - ! Chagai 2 06:54:57.1 PKT
(+5 hrs) 		Kharan Desert, Pakistan 28.3583°N 63.8588°W 580m (1,900feet) - 36m (118feet) underground shaft Miniaturized boosted fission device.

Summary

See also: List of nuclear weapons tests.

- !style="background:#ffdead;" Series or years !style="background:#efefef;" Years covered !style="background:#ffdead;" Tests[23] !style="background:#efefef;" Devices fired !style="background:#ffdead;" Devices with unknown yield !style="background:#efefef;" Peaceful use tests !style="background:#ffdead;" Non-PTBT tests[24] !style="background:#efefef;" class="unsortable" Yield range (kilotons) [25] !style="background:#ffdead;" Total yield (kilotons) [26] !style="background:#efefef; text-align:center;" class="unsortable" Notes - ! Chagai I 1998 1 to 32 - ! Chagai II 1998 15 - class="sortbottom" !style="background:#efefef;" Totals 1998-May-28 to 1998-May-30 2 6 1 to 32 51 Total country yield is 0.0094% of all nuclear testing.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Pakistan's nuclear arsenals. Nuclear Age Peace Foundations. Nuclear files, Pakistan. 14 April 2014. etal.
  2. Web site: Interview with Author: Munir Ahmad Khan. Interview with Author: Munir Ahmad Khan. 14 April 2014.
  3. Book: Nizamani, Haider K.. The roots of rhetoric : politics of nuclear weapons in India and Pakistan. 2000. Praeger. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]. 0275968774. 1. publ..
  4. The US, France and Great Britain have code-named their test events, while the USSR and China did not, and therefore have only test numbers (with some exceptions  - Soviet peaceful explosions were named). Word translations into English in parentheses unless the name is a proper noun. A dash followed by a number indicates a member of a salvo event. The US also sometimes named the individual explosions in such a salvo test, which results in "name1  - 1(with name2)". If test is canceled or aborted, then the row data like date and location discloses the intended plans, where known.
  5. To convert the UT time into standard local, add the number of hours in parentheses to the UT time; for local daylight saving time, add one additional hour. If the result is earlier than 00:00, add 24 hours and subtract 1 from the day; if it is 24:00 or later, subtract 24 hours and add 1 to the day.
  6. Web site: Time Zone Historical Database. iana.com. March 8, 2014.
  7. Rough place name and a latitude/longitude reference; for rocket-carried tests, the launch location is specified before the detonation location, if known. Some locations are extremely accurate; others (like airdrops and space blasts) may be quite inaccurate. "~" indicates a likely pro-forma rough location, shared with other tests in that same area.
  8. Elevation is the ground level at the point directly below the explosion relative to sea level; height is the additional distance added or subtracted by tower, balloon, shaft, tunnel, air drop or other contrivance. For rocket bursts the ground level is "N/A". In some cases it is not clear if the height is absolute or relative to ground, for example, Plumbbob/John. No number or units indicates the value is unknown, while "0" means zero. Sorting on this column is by elevation and height added together.
  9. Atmospheric, airdrop, balloon, gun, cruise missile, rocket, surface, tower, and barge are all disallowed by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Sealed shaft and tunnel are underground, and remained useful under the PTBT. Intentional cratering tests are borderline; they occurred under the treaty, were sometimes protested, and generally overlooked if the test was declared to be a peaceful use.
  10. Include weapons development, weapon effects, safety test, transport safety test, war, science, joint verification and industrial/peaceful, which may be further broken down.
  11. Designations for test items where known, "?" indicates some uncertainty about the preceding value, nicknames for particular devices in quotes. This category of information is often not officially disclosed.
  12. Estimated energy yield in tons, kilotons, and megatons. A ton of TNT equivalent is defined as 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie).
  13. Radioactive emission to the atmosphere aside from prompt neutrons, where known. The measured species is only iodine-131 if mentioned, otherwise it is all species. No entry means unknown, probably none if underground and "all" if not; otherwise notation for whether measured on the site only or off the site, where known, and the measured amount of radioactivity released.
  14. The US, France and Great Britain have code-named their test events, while the USSR and China did not, and therefore have only test numbers (with some exceptions - Soviet peaceful explosions were named). Word translations into English in parentheses unless the name is a proper noun. A dash followed by a number indicates a member of a salvo event. The US also sometimes named the individual explosions in such a salvo test, which results in "name1 - 1(with name2)". If test is canceled or aborted, then the row data like date and location discloses the intended plans, where known.
  15. To convert the UT time into standard local, add the number of hours in parentheses to the UT time; for local daylight saving time, add one additional hour. If the result is earlier than 00:00, add 24 hours and subtract 1 from the day; if it's 24:00 or later, subtract 24 hours and add 1 to the day. Historical time zone data obtained from the IANA time zone database.
  16. Rough place name and a Latitude/Longitude reference; for rocket-carried tests, the launch location is specified before the detonation location, if known. Some locations are extremely accurate; others (like airdrops and space blasts) may be quite inaccurate. "~" indicates a likely pro-forma rough location, shared with other tests in that same area.
  17. Elevation is the ground level at the point directly below the explosion relative to sea level; height is the additional distance added or subtracted by tower, balloon, shaft, tunnel, air drop or other contrivance. For rocket bursts the ground level is "N/A". In some cases it is not clear if the height is absolute or relative to ground, for example, Plumbbob/John. No number or units indicates the value is unknown, while "0" means zero. Sorting on this column is by elevation and height added together.
  18. Atmospheric, airdrop, balloon, gun, cruise missile, rocket, surface, tower, and barge are all disallowed by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Sealed shaft and tunnel are underground, and remained useful under the PTBT. Intentional cratering tests are borderline; they occurred under the treaty, were sometimes protested, and generally overlooked if the test was declared to be a peaceful use.
  19. Include weapons development, weapon effects, safety test, transport safety test, war, science, joint verification and industrial/peaceful, which may be further broken down.
  20. Designations for test items where known, "?" indicates some uncertainty about the preceding value, nicknames for particular devices in quotes. This category of information is often not officially disclosed.
  21. Estimated energy yield in tons, kilotons, and megatons.
  22. Radioactive emission to the atmosphere aside from prompt neutrons, where known. The measured species is only iodine-131 if mentioned, otherwise it is all species. No entry means unknown, probably none if underground and "all" if not; otherwise notation for whether measured on the site only or off the site, where known, and the measured amount of radioactivity released.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. "Small" refers to a value greater than zero but less than 0.5 kt.
  26. 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.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "List of nuclear weapons tests of Pakistan".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.