List of nuclear weapons tests of France

This map shows where France tested their nuclear weapons, shown with red dots.

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.

List

France's nuclear testing series summary
Series or years Years covered Tests Devices fired Devices with unknown yield Peaceful use tests Non-PTBT tests Yield range (kilotons) Total yield (kilotons) Notes
Reggane 1960 4 4 4 1 to 70 78

A series of 4 atmospheric nuclear tests conducted in Reggane. Included the first nuclear test by France, Gerboise Bleue.

In Ekker 1961–1966 13 13 4 0 to 127 286

Series of underground nuclear testing conducted in In Ekker. Radioactive fallout was leaked throughout multiple of the tests.

1966–1970 1966–1970 22 22 22 0 to 2,600 8,044

Series of atmospheric nuclear tests conducted at Moruroa Atoll and Fangataufa Atoll.

Included France's first and most powerful thermonuclear test, Canopus.

1971–1974 1971–1974 24 24 24 0 to 955 2,082

Second series of atmospheric nuclear tests conducted at Moruroa and Fangataufa.

1975–1978 1975–1978 27 27 0 to 64 259

First series of underground nuclear tests conducted at Moruroa and Fangataufa.

1979–1980 1979–1980 22 22 0 to 112 474
1981–1982 1981–1982 22 22 0 to 56 195
1983–1985 1983–1985 25 25 0,25 to 80 537
1986–1988 1986–1988 24 24 2 to 103 625
1989–1991 1989–1991 21 21 0 to 118 755
1995–1996 1995–1996 6 6 8 to 120 268

Last series of nuclear tests conducted by France. France signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty after the last test of the series, Xouthos.

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

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.

Sources