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[1] [2] [3] Ivy Mike was detonated on November 1, 1952, by the United States on the island of Elugelab in Enewetak Atoll, in the now independent island nation of the Marshall Islands, as part of Operation Ivy. It was the first full test of the Teller–Ulam design, a staged fusion device. [4]
The first Ivy shot, codenamed Mike, was the first successful full-scale test of a multi-megaton thermonuclear weapon ("hydrogen bomb") using the Teller-Ulam design.Unlike later thermonuclear weapons, Mike used deuterium as its fusion fuel, maintained as a liquid by an expensive and cumbersome cryogenic system.
Trinity, part of the Manhattan Project, was the first ever nuclear explosion. The United States performed nuclear weapons tests from 1945 to 1992 as part of the nuclear arms race. By official count, there were 1,054 nuclear tests conducted, including 215 atmospheric and underwater tests. [1] [notes 1]
The United States was the first nation to develop the hydrogen bomb, testing an experimental prototype in 1952 ("Ivy Mike") and a deployable weapon in 1954 ("Castle Bravo"). Throughout the Cold War it continued to modernize and enlarge its nuclear arsenal, but from 1992 on has been involved primarily in a program of stockpile stewardship.
The United States was the first country to manufacture nuclear weapons and is the only country to have used them in combat, with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II against Japan. Before and during the Cold War, it conducted 1,054 nuclear tests, and tested many long-range nuclear weapons delivery systems. [Note 1]
Drawing of a Mark 17 bomb. The Mark 17 and Mark 24 were the first mass-produced hydrogen bombs deployed by the United States. The two differed in their "primary" stages. They entered service in 1954, and were phased out by 1957.
Test No. 6, First hydrogen bomb test – June 17, 1967; CHIC-16, 200 kt-1 Mt atmospheric test – June 17, 1974 [25] #21, Largest hydrogen bomb tested by China (4 megatons) - November 17, 1976 #29, Last atmospheric test – October 16, 1980. This is to date the last atmospheric nuclear test by any country. [26]
Developed between 1956 and 1961 as the Soviet Union engaged in a nuclear arms race with the United States, the Tsar Bomba - the King of Bombs - was the largest hydrogen bomb ever and was claimed ...