On this day in 1949 the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear - TopicsExpress



          

On this day in 1949 the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear device, RDS-1, at Semipalatinsk in what is now Kazakhstan. RDS-1 was similar in yield (22 kilotons of TNT) and design to the plutonium bombs that the US tested in Nevada and detonated over Nagasaki. The Soviet test prompted the US to develop a more destructive weapon, the thermonuclear or hydrogen bomb, which it tested for the first time in 1952. The Soviet Union tested its first hydrogen bomb, RDS-6s, a year later.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 11:43:11 +0000

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