The test made india a nuclear power. The peaceful nuclear test codenamed the smiling buddha was conducted on may 18 1974 under the leadership of prime minister indira gandhi. Today may 18 is a historic day for india as we are observing the 46th anniversary of our first nuclear test in rajasthan s pokhran.
The code name for their first nuclear test conducted on july 16 1945 was trinity it marked the development of the deadliest and most powerful weapon in history and the beginning of the. On may 11 1998 india successfully detonated the shakti 1 nuclear bomb at the indian army s pokhran test range in rajasthan as part of the indian army s pokhran test range in rajasthan. Since the trinity test 75 years ago at least eight countries have conducted more than 2 000 nuclear bomb tests said jenifer mackby a senior fellow at the federation of american scientists.
The device was emplaced in a vertical shaft and detonated at a depth of 107 meters. This test which may have only been partially successful demonstrated a claimed yield of 12 kt. First nuclear test at pokhran in 1974 india conducted its first nuclear detonation described by india as a peaceful nuclear explosion on 18 may 1974.
The tests achieved their main objective of giving india the capability to build fission and thermonuclear weapons. The first test code named smiling buddha was conducted in may 1974. It was the second instance of nuclear testing conducted by india.
The pokhran ii tests were a series of five nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by india at the indian army s pokhran test range in may 1998. Pokhran i was also the first confirmed nuclear weapons test by a nation outside the five permanent members of. The bomb was detonated on the army base pokhran test range ptr in rajasthan by the indian army under the supervision of several key indian generals.
Pokhran i was the assigned code name of india s first successful nuclear bomb test on 18 may 1974. Smiling buddha mea designation.
