When was the last atmospheric nuclear test

And he was right. Less than a month later, the United States dropped the same type of bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, just three days after detonating a smaller nuclear warhead over Hiroshima.

It effectively ended World War II, but it came at the price of well over , civilian lives and the enduring suffering of those who survived. The bombing of Nagasaki was the second and final time a country has deployed a nuclear weapon in combat. By the time the US signed the United Nations Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in and agreed to stop blowing up nukes, American physicists and engineers had conducted more than 1, tests.

They blew up nuclear weapons in the ocean. They blew them up on land. They blew them up in space. They dropped them from planes. They launched them on rockets. They buried them underground. The test-ban treaty was meant to end all that.

Atmospheric nuclear tests have been internationally banned since the early s due to health concerns about radioactive fallout and other hazards. In the s, US physicists drastically miscalculated the explosive yield of a thermonuclear bomb during a test in the Pacific Ocean, and the ashy radioactive fallout was detected as far away as India.

Exposure to the fallout caused radiation sickness in the inhabitants of the islands around the test site, and a group of Japanese fishers suffered severe radiation burns when the fallout landed on their boat. Miscalculations of this sort were distressingly common at the time. Only a few years later, a bomber accidentally dropped a nuclear weapon on Kirtland Air Force Base on the outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fortunately, no one had yet loaded into the bomb the plutonium pits needed to kick off a nuclear chain reaction.

View Iframe URL. First nuclear test: May 18, Most recent nuclear test: May 13, Total tests: 7. In , India declared it could produce nuclear weapons within 18 months. Eight years later, India tested a device of up to 15 kilotons and called the test a "peaceful nuclear explosion. First nuclear test: May 28, Most recent nuclear test: May 30, Total tests: 6. In , following its third war with India, Pakistan secretly decided to start a nuclear weapons program to match India's developing capability.

Pakistan responded to India's nuclear tests in by announcing it exploded six underground devices in the Chagai region close to its border with Iran. Total tests: 3. On October 9, North Korea announced they had conducted a nuclear test. On the contrary, government officials were quick to emphasize the military nature of the explosions. A scant two weeks later, Pakistan reacted, conducting two underground nuclear tests at its Ras Koh range. Both India and Pakistan immediately moved to announce unilateral moratoriums on nuclear testing and have conducted no nuclear tests since The announced nuclear test by the DPRK on 9 October broke the eighth-year-long de facto moratorium and was against the letter and spirit of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

This was followed by five more tests in , , and January and September of , and These tests were met with near unanimous global expressions of concern. The UN Security Council strongly condemned them as clear threats to international peace and security.

See an approximate overview of all nuclear testing to date, as well as the CTBT status of the countries that have conducted nuclear tests. See also map. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty bans nuclear testing everywhere on the planet — surface, atmosphere, underwater and underground. The Treaty takes on significance as it also aims to obstruct the development of nuclear weapons: both the initial development of nuclear weapons as well as their substantial improvement e.

The CTBT makes it almost impossible for countries that do not yet have nuclear weapons to develop them. And it makes it almost impossible for countries that have nuclear weapons to develop new or more advanced weapons. It also helps prevent the damage caused by nuclear testing to humans and the environment. All 44 States specifically listed in the Treaty — those with nuclear technology capabilities at the time of the final Treaty negotiations in — must sign and ratify before the CTBT can enter into force.

Otherwise, as of July , countries have signed, of which have ratified the Treaty. It is a unique and comprehensive system. At the heart of the verification regime is the International Monitoring System IMS , which consists of facilities located all over the world that constantly monitor the planet for signs of nuclear explosions.

The IMS uses the following four state-of-the-art technologies:. If the data from the IMS stations indicate that a nuclear test has taken place, a Member State can request for an on-site-inspection to be carried out to collect evidence that will allow the final assessment to be made regarding whether a nuclear explosion — a Treaty violation — has actually taken place. This will only be possible after the CTBT has entered into force. Large on-site inspection exercises were carried out in September in Kazakhstan and in in Jordan.

Skip to main content. Toggle navigation Welcome to the United Nations. A delegate depicts a nuclear-test cloud at her seat in the course of the International Day against Nuclear Tests observance in Ending Nuclear Testing The history of nuclear testing began early on the morning of 16 July at a desert test site in Alamogordo, New Mexico when the United States exploded its first atomic bomb.

The United States conducted 1, tests between and The Soviet Union carried out tests between and S atomic weapons. Fear of the Soviet Union increasing their atomic weapons, and the belief that building up nuclear arms could help establish U.

In the AEC considered many sites for U. In , the name of the site was changed to the Nevada Testing Site. Overtime the site rapidly grew in size. The NTS acquired more land for testing in , , , , and in Between and , the U. Out of these tests were atmospheric, and were underground. Test facilities for nuclear rocket and ramjet engines were also constructed and used from the late s to the early s.

The AEC originally intended for the NTS to be a testing site where quick experiments could be conducted with small scale nuclear bombs. The results ideally would then lead to the development of bigger atomic bombs and advanced thermonuclear weapons.

In reality, largescale atmospheric tests became common and lasted for nearly 12 years. The tests served various purposes such as: determining the impact of nuclear weapons on the physical environment and on manmade structures like military equipment; searching for possible peaceful uses of these weapons; testing the strength and effectiveness of new weapons; proof-testing existing weapons; and studying the effects of nuclear fallout.

One example of the test series was Operation Plumbbob. The U. This series of 29 nuclear tests was one of the longest and most comprehensive test series, and it became controversial after much of the operation was declassified. There were several goals during the Operation such as: improving weapon design, safety testing, conducting bio-medical experiments, and testing designs for thermonuclear systems. About 3, servicemen were also exposed to high levels of radiation during Shot Smoky. Mushroom clouds from the atmospheric tests could be seen up to miles away in the distance.