List of nuclear weapons tests of France

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France executed nuclear weapons tests 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 210 tests with 210 device explosions, 50 in the atmosphere. [1]

Contents

List

France's nuclear testing series summary
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 4441 to 70 78
In Ekker 1961–1966 131340 to 127 286
1966–1970 1966–1970 2222220 to 2,600 8,044
1971–1974 1971–1974 2424240 to 955 2,082
1975–1978 1975–1978 27270 to 64 259
1979–1980 1979–1980 22220 to 112 474
1981–1982 1981–1982 22220 to 56 195
1983–1985 1983–1985 25250,25 to 80 537
1986–1988 1986–1988 24242 to 103 625
1989–1991 1989–1991 21210 to 118 755
1995–1996 1995–1996 668 to 120 268
Totals 1960, Feb 13 to 1996, Jan 27 210 210 4 55 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.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Norris, Robert S. (1996). "French and Chinese Nuclear Weapons Testing" (PDF). Security Dialog. 27 (1). Sage Publications: 39–54. doi:10.1177/0967010696027001006. S2CID   144681530. 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.

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