List of nuclear weapons tests of France

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See also: List of nuclear weapons tests and Force de dissuasion

The List of nuclear weapons tests of France consists of all the atomic tests the French executed in the areas of Reggane and In Ekker in Algeria and the Mururoa and Fangataufa Atolls in French Polynesia, from 13 February 1960 through 27 January 1996. These totaled to 210 tests with 210 device explosions, 50 in the atmosphere.[1]

List[]

France's nuclear testing series summary - Link to world summary of nuclear weapons tests
Series or years Years covered Tests[Summ 1] Devices fired Devices with unknown yield Peaceful use tests Non-PTBT tests[Summ 2] Yield range (kilotons) [Summ 3] Total yield (kilotons) [Summ 4] Notes
Reggane 1960 4 4 4 1 to 65 78
In Ekker 1961–1966 18 18 4 5 0 to 127 286
1966–1970 1966–1970 22 22 22 0 to 2,600 8,044
1971–1974 1971–1974 24 24 24 0 to 955 2,082
1975–1978 1975–1978 29 29 2 0 to 64 259
1979–1980 1979–1980 22 22 0 to 112 474
1981–1982 1981–1982 22 22 0 to 56 195
1983–1985 1983–1985 25 25 small to 80 537
1986–1988 1986–1988 24 24 2 to 103 625
1989–1991 1989–1991 21 21 0 to 118 755
1995–1996 1995–1996 6 6 8 to 97 231
Totals 1960-Feb-13 to 1996-Jan-27 217 217 4 57 0 to 2,600 13,567 Total country yield is 2.5% of all nuclear testing.
  1. ^ Includes all tests with potential for nuclear fission or fusion explosion, including combat use, singleton tests, salvo tests, zero yield fails, safety experiments, and bombs incapacitated by accidents but still intended to be fired. It does not include hydronuclear and subcritical tests, and misfires of a device which was subsequently fired successfully.
  2. ^ Number of tests which would have been in violation of the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, such as atmospheric, space or underwater tests. Some "peaceful use" cratering tests which should have been violations were protested, and later quietly dropped.
  3. ^ "Small" refers to a value greater than zero but less than 0.5 kt.
  4. ^ Some yields are described like "< 20 kt"; such are scored at one half of the numeric amount, i.e., yield of 10k in this example. "Unknown yield" adds nothing to the total.

References[]

  1. ^ Norris, Robert S. (1996). "French and Chinese Nuclear Weapons Testing" (PDF). Security Dialog. Sage Publications. 27 (1): 39–54. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 24, 2013. Retrieved August 16, 2014. Discrepancies between those totals and the table below consist in two undocumented tests mentioned in other sources and five safety tests in an area near In Ekker named Adar Tickertane.

Sources[]

  • Yang, Xiaoping; North, Robert; Romney, Carl (August 2000). "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3)". SMDC Monitoring Research. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Andryushi, LA; Voloshin, N.P.; Ilkaev, R.I.; Matushchenko, A.M.; Ryabev, L.D.; Strukov, V.G.; Chernyshev, A.K.; Yudin, Yu.A. Mikhailov, V.N. (ed.). "Catalog of Worldwide Nuclear Testing". Archived from the original on 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2013-03-04.
  • Wm Robert Johnston, PhD. "Johnston Archive of Nuclear Weapons". Retrieved 2013-12-31. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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