Now nuclear potential some countries are simply amazing. In this area, the laurels of the championship belong to the United States. This power has a size nuclear arsenal is more than 5 thousand units. The nuclear age began more than 70 years ago, after the first atomic bomb test took place in New Mexico at the Alamogordo test site. This event marked the beginning of an era atomic weapons.
Since then, another 2,062 nuclear bombs have been tested in the world. Of these, 1032 tests were carried out by the USA (1945-1992), 715 by the USSR (1949-1990), 210 by France (1960-1996), 45 each by Great Britain (1952-1991) and China (1964-1996), by 6 - India (1974-1998) and Pakistan (1998), and 3 - DPRK (2006, 2009, 2013).

Reasons for creating a nuclear bomb

The first steps towards the creation of nuclear weapons were taken in 1939. The main reason for this was the activities of Nazi Germany, which was preparing for war. Several people considered the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a weapon mass destruction... This fact led to anxiety of opponents of the Hitler regime and was the reason for the appeal to US President Franklin Roosevelt.

Project history

In 1939, several scholars approached Roosevelt. They were Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner. In their letter, they expressed concern about the development in Germany powerful bomb a new kind. Scientists feared that Germany would create a bomb earlier, which could cause enormous destruction. The message also said that thanks to research in the field of atomic physics, it became possible to use the effect of the decay of an atom to create atomic weapons.
The President of the United States treated the message with due attention and on his order a uranium committee was created. On October 21, 1939, at the meeting, it was decided to use uranium and plutonium as raw materials for the bomb. The project developed very slowly and at first was only research in nature. This continued almost until 1941.
Scientists did not like this slow progress, and on March 7, 1940, another letter was sent to Franklin Roosevelt on behalf of Albert Einstein. There are reports that Germany is showing a strong interest in creating a powerful new weapon. Thanks to this, the process of creating a bomb by the Americans accelerated, because in this case there was already a more serious question - it was a question of survival. Who knows what could have happened if German scientists, during World War II, had created the bomb first.
The atomic program was approved by the President of the United States on October 9, 1941 and was named the "Manhattan Project". The project was carried out by the United States in collaboration with Canada and the United Kingdom.
The work was carried out in perfect secrecy. In this regard, he was given such a name. Initially, they wanted to call it "Development of Substitute Materials", which literally translates as "Development of alternative materials". It was clear that such a name could attract unwanted interest from the outside, and therefore it received the optimal name. For the construction of the complex for the implementation of the program, the Manhattan Engineering District was created, from where the name of the project comes.
There is another version of the origin of the name. It is believed to have originated in Manhattan, New York, where Columbia University is located. In its early days, it did most of the research.
More than 125 thousand people participated in the project. Gone is a huge amount of material, industrial and financial resources. In total, $ 2 billion was spent on the creation and testing of the bomb. The best minds of the country worked on the creation of weapons.
Practical work on the creation of the first nuclear bomb started in 1943. In Los Alamos (New Mexico), Hartford (Washington) and Oak Ridge (Tennessee), research institutes in the field of nuclear physics, chemistry, and biology were established.
The first three atomic bombs were created in mid-1945. They differed in the type of action (cannon, gun and implosive type) and in the type of substance (uranium and plutonium).

Preparing to test the bomb

To carry out the first test of an atomic bomb, a place was selected in advance. For this, a sparsely populated area of \u200b\u200bthe country was selected. An important condition was the absence of Indians in the area. This was due to the difficult relationship between the Bureau of Indian Affairs leadership and the Manhattan Project leadership. As a result, at the end of 1944, the Alamogordo area was chosen, which is located in the state of New Mexico.
Planning for the operation began in 1944. She was given the code name "Trinity" (Trinity). In preparation for the test, the option of bomb failure was considered. In this case, a steel container was ordered that is capable of withstanding the explosion of a conventional bomb. This was done so that, in case of a negative result, at least part of the plutonium would be preserved, as well as to prevent its pollution of the environment.
The bomb was codenamed "Gadget". It was installed on a steel tower 30 meters high. Two plutonium hemispheres were installed in the bomb at the last moment.

The first atomic bomb explosion in human history

The explosion was planned to be carried out on July 16, 1945 at 4:00 am local time. But it had to be moved through the weather conditions. The rain stopped and the explosion occurred at 5:30.
As a result of the explosion, the steel tower evaporated, and a crater with a diameter of about 76 meters formed in its place. The light from the explosion could be seen at a distance of about 290 kilometers. The sound spread over a distance of about 160 kilometers. In this regard, it was necessary to spread misinformation about the explosion of ammunition. The mushroom cloud rose to a height of 12 kilometers in five minutes. It consisted of radioactive substances, iron vapor and several tons of dust. After the operation, environmental pollution with radiation was observed at a distance of 160 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. An iron five-meter pipe with a diameter of 10 centimeters, which was concreted and reinforced with guy wires, also evaporated at a distance of 150 meters.
The results of the Manhattan Project could be considered successful. The main participants were well rewarded. Scientists from Canada, Great Britain and the USA, emigrants from Germany and Denmark took part in it. It was this project that marked the beginning of the atomic era.
Today, many powers have an impressive atomic arsenal, but, fortunately, history remembers only two cases of the use of nuclear bombs against humanity - the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945.

On July 29, 1985, the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev announced the decision of the USSR unilaterally to stop any nuclear explosions before January 1, 1986. We decided to talk about the five famous nuclear test sites that existed in the USSR.

Semipalatinsk test site

The Semipalatinsk test site is one of the largest nuclear test sites in the USSR. It also became known as SNTS. The landfill is located in Kazakhstan, 130 km north-west of Semipalatinsk, on the left bank of the Irtysh River. The area of \u200b\u200bthe landfill is 18,500 square kilometers. The formerly closed city of Kurchatov is located on its territory. The Semipalatinsk test site is famous for the fact that the first nuclear weapon test in the Soviet Union was carried out here. The test was carried out on August 29, 1949. The power of the bomb was 22 kilotons.

On August 12, 1953, a 400 kiloton RDS-6s thermonuclear charge was tested at the test site. The charge was placed on the tower 30 m above the ground. As a result of this test, part of the landfill was very heavily contaminated with radioactive explosion products, and a small background still remains in some places. On November 22, 1955, an RDS-37 thermonuclear bomb was tested over the test site. It was dropped by an airplane at an altitude of about 2 km. On October 11, 1961, the first underground nuclear explosion in the USSR was carried out at the test site. From 1949 to 1989, at least 468 were produced at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. nuclear tests, including 125 atmospheric, 343 underground nuclear test explosions.

Nuclear tests at the site have not been conducted since 1989.

Polygon on Novaya Zemlya

The polygon on Novaya Zemlya was opened in 1954. Unlike the Semipalatinsk test site, it was removed from settlements. The nearest large settlement - the village of Amderma - was located 300 km from the landfill, Arkhangelsk - more than 1000 km, Murmansk - more than 900 km.

From 1955 to 1990, 135 nuclear explosions were carried out at the test site: 87 in the atmosphere, 3 underwater and 42 underground. In 1961, the most powerful hydrogen bomb in the history of mankind was detonated on Novaya Zemlya - the 58-megaton Tsar Bomba, also known as the Kuzkina Mother.

In August 1963, the USSR and the USA signed an agreement banning nuclear tests in three environments: in the atmosphere, space and under water. Limitations on the power of charges were also adopted. Underground explosions continued until 1990.

Totsk polygon

The Totsk test site is located in the Volga-Ural military district, 40 km east of the city of Buzuluk. In 1954, tactical exercises of troops under the code name "Snowball" were held here. Marshal Georgy Zhukov supervised the exercises. The purpose of the exercise was to test the capabilities of breaking through enemy defenses using nuclear weapons. The materials related to these exercises have not yet been declassified.

During the exercise on September 14, 1954, a Tu-4 bomber dropped an RDS-2 nuclear bomb with a capacity of 38 kilotons of TNT from a height of 8 km. The explosion was made at an altitude of 350 m. 600 tanks, 600 armored personnel carriers and 320 aircraft were sent to attack the contaminated territory. The total number of servicemen who took part in the exercises was about 45 thousand people. As a result of the exercise, thousands of its participants received various doses of radioactive exposure. A nondisclosure agreement was taken from the participants in the exercises, which led to the fact that the victims could not tell doctors about the causes of the diseases and receive adequate treatment.

Kapustin Yar

Landfill Kapustin Yar is located in the northwestern part Astrakhan region... The proving ground was created on May 13, 1946 to test the first Soviet ballistic missiles.

Since the 1950s, at least 11 nuclear explosions have been carried out at the Kapustin Yar test site at an altitude of 300 m to 5.5 km, the total yield of which is approximately 65 atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima. On January 19, 1957, an anti-aircraft guided missile of type 215 was tested at the test site. It had a nuclear warhead with a yield of 10 kilotons, designed to fight the main nuclear strike force of the United States - strategic aviation. The rocket exploded at an altitude of about 10 km, hitting target aircraft - two Il-28 bombers, controlled by radio control. This was the first high air nuclear explosion in the USSR.

The emergence of such a powerful weapon as a nuclear bomb was the result of the interaction of global factors of an objective and subjective nature. Objectively, its creation was caused by the rapid development of science, which began with the fundamental discoveries of physics in the first half of the 20th century. The strongest subjective factor was the military-political situation of the 40s, when the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - the USA, Great Britain, the USSR - tried to get ahead of each other in the development of nuclear weapons.

Prerequisites for the creation of a nuclear bomb

The starting point of the scientific path to the creation of atomic weapons was 1896, when the French chemist A. Becquerel discovered the radioactivity of uranium. It was the chain reaction of this element that formed the basis for the development of a terrible weapon.

At the end of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th century, scientists discovered alpha, beta, and gamma rays, discovered many radioactive isotopes of chemical elements, the law of radioactive decay, and laid the foundation for the study of nuclear isometry. In the 1930s, the neutron and positron became known, and for the first time the nucleus of a uranium atom with the absorption of neutrons was split. This was the impetus for the beginning of the creation of nuclear weapons. The first invented and in 1939 patented the design of a nuclear bomb was the French physicist Frederic Joliot-Curie.

As a result of further development, nuclear weapons have become a historically unprecedented military-political and strategic phenomenon, capable of ensuring the national security of the possessing state and minimizing the capabilities of all other weapons systems.

The design of an atomic bomb consists of a number of different components, among which there are two main ones:

• case,
• automation system.

Automation, together with a nuclear charge, is located in a housing that protects them from various influences (mechanical, thermal, etc.). The automation system controls that the explosion occurs at a strictly set time. It consists of the following elements:

• emergency blasting;
• protection and cocking device;
• power supply;
• charge detonation sensors.

The delivery of atomic charges is carried out using aviation, ballistic and cruise missiles... In this case, nuclear ammunition can be an element of a land mine, torpedo, aerial bomb, etc.

Nuclear bomb detonation systems are different. The simplest is the injection device, in which hitting the target and the subsequent formation of a supercritical mass becomes the impetus for the explosion.

Another characteristic of atomic weapons is the size of the caliber: small, medium, large. Most often, the power of the explosion is characterized in TNT equivalent. A small caliber of nuclear weapons implies a charge capacity of several thousand tons of TNT. The average caliber is already equal to tens of thousands of tons of TNT, the large one is measured in millions.

Operating principle

The atomic bomb scheme is based on the principle of using nuclear energy released during a nuclear chain reaction. This is the process of fission of heavy or fusion of light nuclei. Due to the release of a huge amount of intranuclear energy in the shortest period of time, a nuclear bomb is classified as a weapon of mass destruction.

During this process, two key points are distinguished:

• the center of a nuclear explosion, in which the process directly proceeds;
• the epicenter, which is the projection of this process onto the surface (land or water).

A nuclear explosion releases an amount of energy that, when projected onto the earth, causes seismic shocks. The range of their propagation is very long, but significant harm environment applied at a distance of only a few hundred meters.

Atomic weapons have several types of destruction:

• light emission,
• radioactive contamination,
• shock wave,
• penetrating radiation,
• electromagnetic pulse.

A nuclear explosion is accompanied by a bright flash that is formed due to the release a large number light and heat energy. The power of this flash is many times higher than the power of the sun's rays, so the danger of being hit by light and heat spreads over several kilometers.

Another very dangerous factor in the impact of a nuclear bomb is the radiation generated by the explosion. It works only for the first 60 seconds, but has maximum penetrating power.

The shock wave has great power and significant destructive effect, therefore, in a matter of seconds, it causes great harm to people, equipment, and buildings.

Penetrating radiation is dangerous for living organisms and is the reason for the development of radiation sickness in humans. The electromagnetic pulse only affects machinery.

All of these types of damage combined make the atomic bomb a very dangerous weapon.

The first tests of a nuclear bomb

The United States was the first to show the greatest interest in atomic weapons. At the end of 1941, the country allocated huge funds and resources to create nuclear weapons... The work resulted in the first tests of an atomic bomb with an explosive device "Gadget", which took place on July 16, 1945 in the American state of New Mexico.

The time has come for the US to act. For the victorious end of the Second World War, it was decided to defeat the ally of Hitlerite Germany - Japan. The Pentagon chose targets for the first nuclear strikesin which the United States wanted to demonstrate how powerful weapon they possess.

On August 6 of the same year, the first atomic bomb named "Kid" was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and on August 9, a bomb named "Fat Man" fell on Nagasaki.

The hit in Hiroshima was considered ideal: a nuclear device exploded at an altitude of 200 meters. The blast wave overturned coal-fired stoves in Japanese homes. This led to numerous fires even in urban areas far from the epicenter.

The initial flash was followed by a heat wave that lasted seconds, but its power, covering a radius of 4 km, melted the tiles and quartz in the granite slabs, incinerated the telegraph poles. A shock wave followed the heat wave. The wind speed was 800 km / h, and its gust blew away almost everything in the city. Of the 76 thousand buildings, 70 thousand were completely destroyed.

A few minutes later, a strange rain came from large drops of black color. It was caused by condensation formed in the colder layers of the atmosphere from steam and ash.

People hit by a fireball at a distance of 800 meters were burned and turned into dust. Some of the burned skin was ripped off by the shock wave. Drops of black radioactive rain left incurable burns.

The survivors fell ill with a previously unknown disease. They developed nausea, vomiting, fever, and bouts of weakness. The level of white cells in the blood fell sharply. These were the first signs of radiation sickness.

Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, a bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It had the same power and caused similar consequences.

Two atomic bombs destroyed hundreds of thousands of people in seconds. The first city was practically wiped off the face of the earth by the shock wave. More than half of the civilians (about 240 thousand people) died immediately from their wounds. Many people were exposed to radiation, which led to radiation sickness, cancer, infertility. In Nagasaki, 73 thousand people were killed in the first days, and after a while another 35 thousand people died in great pain.

Video: nuclear bomb tests

RDS-37 tests

The creation of the atomic bomb in Russia

The consequences of the bombing and the history of the inhabitants of Japanese cities shocked J. Stalin. It became clear that the creation of our own nuclear weapons is a matter of national security. On August 20, 1945, a committee for atomic energy, which was headed by L. Beria.

Research in nuclear physics has been carried out in the USSR since 1918. In 1938, a commission on the atomic nucleus was created at the Academy of Sciences. But with the beginning of the war, almost all work in this direction was suspended.

In 1943, Soviet intelligence officers transferred from England closed scientific works on atomic energy, from which it followed that the creation of the atomic bomb in the West had advanced far ahead. At the same time, reliable agents were deployed in the United States at several centers of American nuclear research. They passed information on the atomic bomb to Soviet scientists.

The terms of reference for the development of two variants of the atomic bomb were drawn up by their creator and one of the scientific leaders, Yu. In accordance with it, it was planned to create an RDS ("special jet engine") with index 1 and 2:

1. RDS-1 is a bomb with a charge of plutonium, which was supposed to be detonated by spherical compression. His device was transferred by Russian intelligence.
2. RDS-2 is a cannon bomb with two parts of a uranium charge, which must converge in the barrel of the cannon before creating a critical mass.

In the history of the famous RDS, the most common decoding - "Russia makes itself" - was invented by Y. Khariton's deputy for scientific work K. Shchelkin. These words very accurately convey the essence of the work.

The information that the USSR had mastered the secrets of nuclear weapons caused an impulse in the United States to start a preemptive war as soon as possible. In July 1949, the Troyan plan appeared, according to which fighting planned to start on January 1, 1950. Then the date of the attack was postponed to January 1, 1957, with the condition that all NATO countries entered the war.

The information received through intelligence channels accelerated the work of Soviet scientists. According to Western experts, Soviet nuclear weapons could have been created not earlier than 1954-1955. However, the test of the first atomic bomb took place in the USSR at the end of August 1949.

On August 29, 1949, the nuclear device RDS-1, the first Soviet atomic bomb invented by a team of scientists headed by I. Kurchatov and Yu. Khariton, was detonated at the Semipalatinsk test site. The explosion had a power of 22 Kt. The design of the charge imitated the American "Fat Man", and the electronic filling was created by Soviet scientists.

The Troyan plan, according to which the Americans were going to drop atomic bombs on 70 cities in the USSR, was thwarted due to the likelihood of a retaliatory strike. The event at the Semipalatinsk test site informed the world that the Soviet atomic bomb had ended the American monopoly on new weapons. This invention completely destroyed the militaristic plan of the USA and NATO and prevented the development of the Third World War. A new history has begun - an era of world peace, which exists under the threat of total destruction.

"Nuclear club" of the world

The Nuclear Club is a shorthand for several states that possess nuclear weapons. Today such weapons are:

• in the USA (since 1945)
• in Russia (originally USSR, since 1949)
• in Great Britain (since 1952)
• in France (since 1960)
• in China (since 1964)
• in India (since 1974)
• in Pakistan (since 1998)
• in the DPRK (since 2006)

Israel is also considered to have nuclear weapons, although the country's leadership does not comment on their presence. In addition, US nuclear weapons are located on the territory of NATO member states (Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada) and allies (Japan, South Korea, despite the official refusal).

Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, which possessed some of the nuclear weapons after the collapse of the USSR, in the 90s transferred them to Russia, which became the only heir to the Soviet nuclear arsenal.

Atomic (nuclear) weapons are the most powerful instrument of global politics, which has firmly entered the arsenal of relations between states. On the one hand, it is an effective deterrent, on the other, a weighty argument for preventing a military conflict and strengthening peace between the powers that own these weapons. This is a symbol of an entire era in the history of mankind and international relationsto be handled very wisely.

Video: Nuclear Weapons Museum

Video about the Russian Tsar Bomb

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The most terrible weapon created by mankind is the nuclear bomb. Here are some facts from the history of testing this terrible invention.

External wiring of the Trinity nuclear device, the first ever test of a nuclear weapon - an atomic bomb. At the time of this photograph, the device was being prepared for its detonation, which took place on July 16, 1945. We can say that the history of nuclear bomb tests began with this photo.

Silhouette of Los Alamos Director Robert Oppenheimer, who oversees the final assembly of the device at Trinity Proving Ground in July 1945.

Jumbo, a 200 ton steel canister designed to recover plutonium used in the Trinity test, but explosivesthat were originally used were unable to cause a chain reaction. In the end, the Jumbo was not used to recover plutonium, but it was installed near the epicenter to assess the impact of the explosion. It has survived, but its tower has disappeared.

The expanding fireball and shockwave from the Trinity explosion, 0.25 seconds after the July 16, 1945 explosion.

The fireball begins to rise and the world's first atomic mushroom cloud begins to form, pictured nine seconds after Trinity exploded on July 16, 1945.

The US military oversees the explosion during Operation Crossroads Baker on Bikini Atoll (Marshall Islands) on July 25, 1946. This was the fifth nuclear explosion since the previous two were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

First underwater atomic bomb explosion test, a massive column of water rises from the sea, Bikini Atoll, Pacific Ocean, July 25, 1946.

A huge mushroom cloud rises over Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands on July 25, 1946. The dark spots in the foreground are ships that have been positioned near the blast site to test what the atomic bomb can do to a fleet of warships.

On November 16, 1952, a B-36H bomber dropped an atomic bomb over the northern tip of Runit Island in Enewetak Atoll, causing a 500 kiloton explosion, part of a test codenamed Ivy.

Operation Greenhouse took place in the spring of 1951, consisting of four explosions at the Pacific Ocean proving grounds. This photograph of the third test, George, May 9, 1951, the first thermonuclear bomb, 225 kilotons.

The photo shows a nuclear ball (one millisecond after the explosion). During the Tumbler-Snapper tests in 1952, a nuclear bomb was planted 90 meters above the Nevada desert.

Complete destruction of house number 1, located at a distance of 1070 meters from the epicenter, destroyed by a nuclear explosion, March 17, 1953, Yucca Flat at the Nevada test site. The time from the first to the last image is 2.3 seconds. The camera was in a 5 cm lead sheath, which protected it from radiation. The only source of light was the explosion itself from the nuclear bomb.

1 photo. During Doorstep's trials during the major Operation Upshot-Knothole, dummies sit at a dining room table at Number Two, March 15, 1953.

2 photos. After the explosion, the mannequins lie scattered around the room, their "meal" was interrupted by an atomic explosion on March 17, 1953.

1 photo. A mannequin lying on a bed, on the second floor of house number 2, is ready to experience the impact of an atomic explosion, at a test site near Las Vegas, Nevada, March 15, 1953, at a distance of 1.5 miles, there is a steel tower 90 meters high on which a bomb will detonate ... The purpose of the tests is to show civil defense officials what will happen in an American city if it is subjected to an atomic attack.

1 photo. The mannequins, a typical American family, gathered in the living room of No. 2 on March 15, 1953.

Operation Upshot-Knothole, BADGER Event, 23 kilotons, April 18, 1953, Nevada Proving Ground.

US nuclear artillery test, conducted by the US military in Nevada on May 25, 1953. A 280mm nuclear projectile was fired 10 km into the desert from the M65 Atomic Cannon, detonating in the air, about 152 meters above the ground, with a yield of 15 kilotons.

A hydrogen bomb test explosion during Operation Redwing over Bikini Atoll, May 20, 1956.

The flash of an exploding nuclear warhead from an air-to-air missile is shown as a bright sun in the eastern sky at 7:30 am on July 19, 1957 at Indian Air Force Springs, about 30 miles from the point of detonation.

The photo shows the tail section of the US Navy airship, followed by the Stokes cloud at the Nevada Proving Ground on August 7, 1957. The airship was in free flight over five miles from ground zero. The airship was unmanned and was used as a dummy.

Observers view atmospheric phenomena during the Hardtack I thermonuclear bomb test, Pacific Ocean, 1958.

2 photos pertaining to a series of over 100 nuclear test explosions in Nevada and The Pacific in 1962

The Fishbowl Bluegill bomb explodes, a 400 kiloton atomic bomb explodes in the atmosphere, 30 miles above the Pacific Ocean (photo above), October 1962.

Another photo from a series of over 100 nuclear test explosions in Nevada and the Pacific in 1962

The Sedan crater was formed with a 100 kiloton bomb buried under 193 meters of earth, displacing 12 million tons of earth. Crater 97 meters deep and 390 meters in diameter, July 6, 1962

(3 photos) The explosion of the French atomic bomb on the Mururoa Atoll, French Polynesia. 1971 year.

History of nuclear bomb tests in the photo

Koh Kambaran. Pakistan decided to conduct its first tests of nuclear charges in the province of Baluchistan. The charges were placed in an adit dug in Mount Koh Kambaran and blown up in May 1998. The locals hardly ever visit this area, with the exception of a few nomads and herbalists.

Maralinga. The area in southern Australia, where atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons took place, were once considered sacred by the locals. As a result, twenty years after the end of the tests, a second operation was organized to clean up Maralinga. The first was carried out after the final test in 1963.

Pohran. In the Indian empty Tar of the state of Rajasthan, on May 18, 1974, a bomb of 8 kilotons was tested. In May 1998, five charges were detonated at the Pohran test site, including a thermonuclear charge of 43 kilotons.

Bikini Atoll. The Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean is home to Bikini Atoll, where the United States actively conducted nuclear tests. Other explosions rarely made it onto film, but these were filmed quite often. Still - 67 tests in the interval from 1946 to 1958.

Christmas Island. Christmas Island, aka Kiritimati, stands out for the fact that both Britain and the United States were testing atomic weapons on it. In 1957, the first British hydrogen bomb was detonated there, and in 1962, as part of the Dominic project, the United States is testing 22 charges there.

Lop Nor. At the site of a dried-up salt lake in western China, about 45 warheads were detonated, both in the atmosphere and underground. The tests were discontinued in 1996.

Mururoa. The atoll in the South Pacific experienced a lot - more precisely, 181 French nuclear weapons tests from 1966 to 1986. The last charge got stuck in an underground mine and, when it exploded, formed a crack several kilometers long. After this, the tests were terminated.

New Earth. The archipelago in the Arctic Ocean was selected for nuclear tests on September 17, 1954. Since then, 132 nuclear explosions have been carried out there, including the test of the most powerful hydrogen bomb in the world - the 58 megaton Tsar Bomb.

Semipalatinsk. From 1949 to 1989, at least 468 nuclear tests were carried out at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. So much plutonium has accumulated there that from 1996 to 2012 Kazakhstan, Russia and the United States conducted a secret operation to search for and collect and dispose of radioactive materials. They managed to collect about 200 kg of plutonium.

Nevada. The Nevada test site, which has existed since 1951, breaks all records - 928 nuclear explosions, of which 800 are underground. Given that the test site is only 100 kilometers from Las Vegas, mushrooms were considered a normal part of entertainment for tourists half a century ago.