List of nuclear weapons tests of Pakistan

Chagai I
Information
Country Pakistan
Test site Ras Koh, Pakistan
Period 1998
Number of tests 1
Test type underground tunnel
Max. yield 32 kilotonnes of TNT (130 TJ)
Navigation
Next test series Chagai II

The Nuclear testing series programme refers to an active military programme directed towards the development of techniques of experimenting nuclear forces and further investigations of the blast effects. The programme was suggested and idealized by Munir Ahmad Khan– chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC)– as early as 1977.[1]

First subcritical tests were carried out in 1983 by the PAEC, codename as Kirana-I, continued until the 1990s under Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.[1][2] Further claims of conducting subcritical tests at Kahuta were made in 1984 by KRL but were dismissed by the government. Due to amid tensions arisen with BJP-led government under Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee's decision of Pokhran-II– codename of India's nuclear tests in 1998.[3]

The PML government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif authorized the programme jointly under PAEC and KRL, assisted by Corps of Engineers in 1998. There were six nuclear tests performed under this programme: codename: Chagai-I and Chagai-II. After the Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee paying a state visit to Pakistan to meet with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, both countries signed a nuclear testing control treaty, the Lahore Declaration in 1999.[4]

Testing series

Chagai-I

The Pakistan's Chagai-I nuclear test series was a single nuclear test conducted in 1998.

Pakistan's Chagai I series tests and detonations
Name [n 1] Date time (UT) Local time zone [n 2][5] Location [n 3] Elevation + height [n 4] Delivery, [n 5]
Purpose [n 6]		 Device [n 7] Yield [n 8] Fallout [n 9] References Notes
Chagai 1 - 1 28 May 1998 10:16:15.8 PKT (5 hrs)
 Ras Koh, Pakistan 28°47′34″N 64°56′44″E / 28.79273°N 64.94565°E / 28.79273; 64.94565 (Chagai 1 - 1) 1,298 m (4,259 ft) + underground tunnel,
 32 kt [6][7][8] Boosted fission device. Notice debris from light rock band slumped downhill from shaking. No official word on what happened in the test. A. Q Khan, well connected but considered unreliable, says 1 large and 4 small devices detonated.
Chagai 1 - 2 28 May 1998 10:16:15.8 PKT (5 hrs)
 Ras Koh, Pakistan 28°47′34″N 64°56′44″E / 28.79273°N 64.94565°E / 28.79273; 64.94565 (Chagai 1 - 2) 1,298 m (4,259 ft) + underground tunnel,
 1 kt [6][7][8] Boosted fission device. Notice debris from light rock band slumped downhill from shaking.
Chagai 1 - 3 28 May 1998 10:16:15.8 PKT (5 hrs)
 Ras Koh, Pakistan 28°47′34″N 64°56′44″E / 28.79273°N 64.94565°E / 28.79273; 64.94565 (Chagai 1 - 3) 1,298 m (4,259 ft) + underground tunnel,
 1 kt [6][7][8] Boosted fission device.
Chagai 1 - 4 28 May 1998 10:16:15.8 PKT (5 hrs)
 Ras Koh, Pakistan 28°47′34″N 64°56′44″E / 28.79273°N 64.94565°E / 28.79273; 64.94565 (Chagai 1 - 4) 1,298 m (4,259 ft) + underground tunnel,
 1 kt [6][7][8] Boosted fission device.
Chagai 1 - 5 28 May 1998 10:16:15.8 PKT (5 hrs)
 Ras Koh, Pakistan 28°47′34″N 64°56′44″E / 28.79273°N 64.94565°E / 28.79273; 64.94565 (Chagai 1 - 5) 1,298 m (4,259 ft) + underground tunnel,
 1 kt [6][7][8] Boosted fission device.
  1. ↑ The US, France and Great Britain have code-named their test events, while the USSR and China did not, and therefore have only test numbers (with some exceptions – Soviet peaceful explosions were named). Word translations into English in parentheses unless the name is a proper noun. A dash followed by a number indicates a member of a salvo event. The US also sometimes named the individual explosions in such a salvo test, which results in "name1 – 1(with name2)". If test is canceled or aborted, then the row data like date and location discloses the intended plans, where known.
  2. ↑ To convert the UT time into standard local, add the number of hours in parentheses to the UT time; for local daylight saving time, add one additional hour. If the result is earlier than 00:00, add 24 hours and subtract 1 from the day; if it is 24:00 or later, subtract 24 hours and add 1 to the day. All historical timezone data are derived from here:
  3. ↑ Rough place name and a latitude/longitude reference; for rocket-carried tests, the launch location is specified before the detonation location, if known. Some locations are extremely accurate; others (like airdrops and space blasts) may be quite inaccurate. "~" indicates a likely pro-forma rough location, shared with other tests in that same area.
  4. ↑ Elevation is the ground level at the point directly below the explosion relative to sea level; height is the additional distance added or subtracted by tower, balloon, shaft, tunnel, air drop or other contrivance. For rocket bursts the ground level is "N/A". In some cases it is not clear if the height is absolute or relative to ground, for example, Plumbbob/John. No number or units indicates the value is unknown, while "0" means zero. Sorting on this column is by elevation and height added together.
  5. ↑ Atmospheric, airdrop, balloon, gun, cruise missile, rocket, surface, tower, and barge are all disallowed by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Sealed shaft and tunnel are underground, and remained useful under the PTBT. Intentional cratering tests are borderline; they occurred under the treaty, were sometimes protested, and generally overlooked if the test was declared to be a peaceful use.
  6. ↑ Include weapons development, weapon effects, safety test, transport safety test, war, science, joint verification and industrial/peaceful, which may be further broken down.
  7. ↑ Designations for test items where known, "?" indicates some uncertainty about the preceding value, nicknames for particular devices in quotes. This category of information is often not officially disclosed.
  8. ↑ Estimated energy yield in tons, kilotons, and megatons. A ton of TNT equivalent is defined as 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie).
  9. ↑ Radioactive emission to the atmosphere aside from prompt neutrons, where known. The measured species is only iodine-131 if mentioned, otherwise it is all species. No entry means unknown, probably none if underground and "all" if not; otherwise notation for whether measured on the site only or off the site, where known, and the measured amount of radioactivity released.

Chagai II

Chagai II

Satellite image of Kharan Desert
Information
Country Pakistan
Test site Kharan Desert, Pakistan
Period 1998
Number of tests 1
Test type underground shaft
Max. yield 15 kilotonnes of TNT (63 TJ)
Navigation
Previous test series Chagai I

The Pakistan's Chagai II nuclear test series was a single nuclear test conducted in 1998. These tests followed the Chagai-I series .

The Pakistan test series summary table is below.

The detonations in the Pakistan's Chagai-II series are listed below:

Pakistan's Chagai II series tests and detonations
Name [n 1] Date time (UT) Local time zone [n 2][9] Location [n 3] Elevation + height [n 4] Delivery [n 5] Purpose [n 6] Device [n 7] Yield [n 8] Fallout [n 9] References Notes
Chagai 2 30 May 1998 06:54:57.1 PKT (5 hrs)
 Kharan Desert, Pakistan 28°21′30″N 63°51′32″E / 28.35828°N 63.85882°E / 28.35828; 63.85882 (Chagai 2) 580 m (1,900 ft) - 36 m (118 ft) underground shaft 15 kt [6][7][8][10] Miniaturized boosted fission device.
  1. ↑ The US, France and Great Britain have code-named their test events, while the USSR and China did not, and therefore have only test numbers (with some exceptions - Soviet peaceful explosions were named). Word translations into English in parentheses unless the name is a proper noun. A dash followed by a number indicates a member of a salvo event. The US also sometimes named the individual explosions in such a salvo test, which results in "name1 - 1(with name2)". If test is canceled or aborted, then the row data like date and location discloses the intended plans, where known.
  2. ↑ To convert the UT time into standard local, add the number of hours in parentheses to the UT time; for local daylight saving time, add one additional hour. If the result is earlier than 00:00, add 24 hours and subtract 1 from the day; if it's 24:00 or later, subtract 24 hours and add 1 to the day. All historical timezone data (excepting Johnston Atoll) are derived from here:
  3. ↑ Rough place name and a Latitude/Longitude reference; for rocket-carried tests, the launch location is specified before the detonation location, if known. Some locations are extremely accurate; others (like airdrops and space blasts) may be quite inaccurate. "~" indicates a likely pro-forma rough location, shared with other tests in that same area.
  4. ↑ Elevation is the ground level at the point directly below the explosion relative to sea level; height is the additional distance added or subtracted by tower, balloon, shaft, tunnel, air drop or other contrivance. For rocket bursts the ground level is "N/A". In some cases it is not clear if the height is absolute or relative to ground, for example, Plumbbob/John. No number or units indicates the value is unknown, while "0" means zero. Sorting on this column is by elevation and height added together.
  5. ↑ Atmospheric, airdrop, balloon, gun, cruise missile, rocket, surface, tower, and barge are all disallowed by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Sealed shaft and tunnel are underground, and remained useful under the PTBT. Intentional cratering tests are borderline; they occurred under the treaty, were sometimes protested, and generally overlooked if the test was declared to be a peaceful use.
  6. ↑ Include weapons development, weapon effects, safety test, transport safety test, war, science, joint verification and industrial/peaceful, which may be further broken down.
  7. ↑ Designations for test items where known, "?" indicates some uncertainty about the preceding value, nicknames for particular devices in quotes. This category of information is often not officially disclosed.
  8. ↑ Estimated energy yield in tons, kilotons, and megatons.
  9. ↑ Radioactive emission to the atmosphere aside from prompt neutrons, where known. The measured species is only iodine-131 if mentioned, otherwise it is all species. No entry means unknown, probably none if underground and "all" if not; otherwise notation for whether measured on the site only or off the site, where known, and the measured amount of radioactivity released.

Summary

Pakistan'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
Chagai I 1998 1 5 1 to 32 36
Chagai II 1998 1 1 15 15
Totals 1998-May-28 to 1998-May-30 2 6 1 to 32 51 Total country yield is 0.0% 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. 1 2 "Pakistan's nuclear arsenals". Nuclear Age Peace Foundations. Nuclear files, Pakistan. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  2. ↑ Interview with Author: Munir Ahmad Khan. "Interview with Author: Munir Ahmad Khan". Interview with Author: Munir Ahmad Khan. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  3. ↑ Further annotation and readings can be viewed at Pokhran-II
  4. ↑ Nizamani, Haider K. (2000). The roots of rhetoric : politics of nuclear weapons in India and Pakistan (1. publ. ed.). Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Praeger. ISBN 0275968774.
  5. ↑ "Timezone Historical Database". iana.com. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Norris. "Indian and Pakistan: At the Crossroads" (PDF). Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sublette, Carey. "Nuclear Weapon Archives". Retrieved January 20, 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Yang, Xiaoping; North, Robert; Romney, Carl (August 2000). CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3) (Technical report). SMDC Monitoring Research.
  9. ↑ Timezone Historical Database, iana.com, retrieved 2014-03-08
  10. ↑ Albright, David (November 1998), "The Shots Heard 'round the World", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, pp. 20–25, retrieved 2013-03-16

Sources

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