Semipalatinsk
- Country: Kazakhstan
- Role: Weapons Test
- Status: Decommissioned
- Year: 1949
Overview
The primary Soviet test site, 18,000 square km of the Kazakh steppe, hosting 456 nuclear explosions from 1949 to 1989, including the first Soviet bomb. Closed in 1991 by presidential decree, after which Kazakhstan gave up the fourth largest arsenal inherited from the USSR.
Related Sites
Trinity Site
The first detonation of a nuclear weapon, the plutonium implosion device nicknamed the Gadget, at 5:29 am on 16 July 1945 on the A...
Nevada Test Site
The continental US proving ground, 1,350 square miles northwest of Las Vegas, hosting 928 announced nuclear tests between 1951 and...
Bikini Atoll
Site of 23 US nuclear tests from 1946 to 1958, including the Operation Crossroads underwater Baker shot in 1946 and the 15 megaton...
Novaya Zemlya
The Soviet Arctic archipelago proving ground where Tsar Bomba, the 50 megaton largest bomb ever detonated, exploded over the Sukho...