A graphic timeline representation of every nuclear bomb ever detonated (minus North Korea's recent tests in Oct. 2006 and May 2009), produced in 2003 by Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto.
A total of 2053 detonations:
United States 1032
U.S.S.R. 715
France 210
United Kingdom 45
China 45
India 4
Pakistan 2
The world's first explosion of a nuclear device was the Trinity test in Jornada del Muerto's Tularosa Basin on July 16, 1945. The next two detonations were also the first and last time nuclear devices were used in military combat as weapons -- the
attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945. Of the ensuing tests conducted by the U.S., over 200 were detonated aboveground in the lower 48 states and in the Pacific Ocean between
July 1946 and November 1962. Roughly half of these took place at The Nevada Test Site, a 3500 square-kilometer area located 100 kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, NV. More than 800 additional underground weapons tests were conducted from 1962 through September 1992. (source -
Division of Radiation Control, Utah Dept. of Environmental Quality)
The U.S. is the only nation that has
compensated victims exposed to radiation from nuclear testing.
