Governments including the US, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, South Africa, and possibly Israel have tested nuclear weapons at various sites. The first nuclear test sites were in New Mexico and Nevada, with the first-ever nuclear weapon detonated in New Mexico in 1945. Nuclear testing continued with Operation Crossroads in the Pacific, where two nuclear weapons were detonated at sea on Bikini Atoll. The Nevada Test Site was added in 1951, with 928 known nuclear tests conducted there between 1951 and 1992. Various sites in the Marshall Islands were also used as nuclear test sites, including Bikini Atoll, where over 105 bombs were detonated in the upper atmosphere.
Nuclear test sites are places where governments have tested nuclear weapons. Governments that have tested nuclear weapons include the US, Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, South Africa and possibly Israel. The first nuclear test sites were locations in the deserts of New Mexico and Nevada in the United States. The first ever nuclear weapon, the Trinity, was detonated on July 16, 1945 at Alamogordo, near Socorro, New Mexico, on what is now the White Sands Missile Range.
After the Allies won World War II, nuclear testing was continued by the United States during Operation Crossroads, in which two nuclear weapons, Baker and Able, were detonated at sea on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. These were the fourth and fifth nuclear explosions on the planet, respectively, the third and fourth were the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The blasts were used to test the effects of nuclear blasts on ships and accompanying dummies.
The energy generated by the explosions was so intense that the seabed was reduced to sand so fine that the crabs could not climb it without sliding to the bottom of the underwater crater. 167 Bikini Atoll natives were relocated 128 miles east to uninhabited Rongerik Atoll, where they remain to this day, receiving little support from the US government in their wishes to return to their ancestral home.
In 1951, the United States added the Nevada Proving Grounds, now known as the Nevada Test Site, a location approximately 65 miles (105 km) outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, to the list of nuclear test sites. Between 1951 and 1992, there were 928 known nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site, 828 of which were underground. Most of the iconic images of nuclear explosions come from these many tests.
Between 1946 and 1961, various sites in the Marshall Islands, first and most famously Bikini Atoll, were used as nuclear test sites, known collectively as the Pacific Proving Grounds. This site was the most popular of the atmospheric nuclear test sites – over 105 bombs were detonated in the upper atmosphere in the area – including the highest yield bombs, which must be detonated at high altitudes to minimize fallout . The most powerful US nuclear test, Castle Bravo, with a yield of 15 megatons, was conducted in this region.
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