Description
On August 29 1949 Russia conducted its first nuclear weapons test. Pervaya Molniya (RDS-1) was the explosion of a 22 kiloton plutonium bomb, detonated at the Semipalatinsk Test Site, in Soviet Kazakhstan.
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The bomb was an almost exact copy of the US Trinity plutonium design dropped on Nagasaki - a design which was already out of date in the US by 1950 (after 120 such devices had been built - an ambition for post-war domination which was evident towards the end of the Manhattan project, with the industrial scale of plutonium production).
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The Semipalatinsk area was used for another 40 years by the USSR, with over 450 atmospheric and underground tests. No efforts were made to protect the local indigenous population, and reliable sources estimate that around 1.5 million people were exposed to radioactive fallout.
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On the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the unsecured test site abruptly closed. Fissile materials, including plutonium, were left behind in mountain tunnels and bore holes, virtually unguarded and vulnerable to scavengers, rogue states, or potential terrorists. It was the largest nuclear security threat after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1995, Kazakh, Russian, and American nuclear scientists and engineers embarked on a secret 17-year, billion dollar operation to secure the plutonium in the tunnels of the mountains - mainly by trying to pour concrete down the holes.
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Ukraine initially inherited a substantial portion of the USSR's nuclear arsenal, becoming the third-largest nuclear power globally at that time with between 4,000 and 6,000 weapons. In 1994, under the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agreed to relinquish its nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances by Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, who pledged to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. By June 1, 1996, Ukraine had transferred the last of its nuclear warheads to Russia for elimination. As of today, 29 August 2025, Ukraine has been at war with Russia for over 3 years, following the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and full-scale invasion in 2022.
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The USSR conducted 715 nuclear weapons tests, and Russia now possesses an estimated 5,800 warheads, of which 1,600 are actively deployed.
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"Test Anniversary" edition issued in support of nuclear disarmament: donate to https://cnduk.org/
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The original pen plot of the topography of the region was made using Stabilo pen and AxiDraw SE/A3, on 180g Bristol