What are Some Different Types of Nuclear Testing?
Nuclear testing has been conducted by eight nations — United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and possibly Israel. The first nuclear test, Trinity, was conducted by the United States on 16 July 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Since then, at least eight other nations have developed nuclear weapons, with five — United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China, part of “nuclear weapons states,” as identified by the internationally recognized Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. There are four main types of nuclear testing — atmospheric, underground, exoatmospheric, and underwater. Each has different purposes and advantages. The first nuclear test was atmospheric, a 20 kilotons of TNT equivalent bomb detonated on a steel tower 20 m (67 ft) tall. A few scientists on the Manhattan Project were worried that the test would ignite the atmosphere and kill everything on Earth, but calculations at the time showed this to be an extremely low pr
