|
Semipalatinsk Polygon
The Semipalatinsk Test Site or Semipalatinsk-21 (; ), also known as "The Polygon", was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. It is located in Zhanasemey District, Abai Region, Kazakhstan, south of the valley of the Irtysh River. The test site was part of the former Kazakh SSR. The scientific buildings for the test site were located around west of the town of Semipalatinsk, later renamed Semey, near the border of East Kazakhstan Region and Pavlodar Region. Most of the nuclear tests taking place at various sites further to the west and the south, some as far as into Karagandy Region. The Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk from 1949 until 1989 with little regard for their effect on the local people or environment. The full impact of radiation exposure was hidden for many years by Soviet authorities and has only come to light since the test site closed in 1991. According to estimates from Kazakh experts, 1.5 million people were expo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe 1
The RDS-1 (), also known as Izdeliye 501 (device 501) and First Lightning (), was the nuclear bomb used in the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test. The United States assigned it the code-name Joe-1, in reference to Joseph Stalin. It was detonated on 29 August 1949 at 7:00 a.m., at the Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, Kazakh SSR, after top-secret research and development as part of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Etymology There are several explanations for the Soviet code-name of RDS-1, usually an arbitrary designation: a backronym "Special Jet Engine" (, ''Reaktivnyi Dvigatel Spetsialnyi''), or "Stalin's Jet Engine" (, ''Reaktivnyi Dvigatel Stalina''), or "Russia does it herself" (, ''Rossiya Delayet Sama''). Later weapons were also designated RDS but with different model numbers. Description The weapon was designed at the Kurchatov Institute, then at the time officially known as "Laboratory № 2" but designated as the "office" or "b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
