tinychaseNuclear kiosks · 1945 to 1992
The Test Era
Every documented nuclear detonation by the United States, the Soviet Union, France and Britain, one bar per year, from Trinity to the last American shot in September 1992. Pick a burst type to see the 1963 treaty push the whole enterprise underground, and hover a year for who fired what.
What the yield adds up to
Documented numeric yields per year, where the catalogues print a number. Most tests after 1963 carry only an announcement band, so the bars thin out exactly when the count does not.
What they were for
The catalogues' own purpose codes, grouped. Peaceful means the Plowshare programme and the Soviet industrial explosions: canal digging, gas-well capping, cavity storage, seismic sounding.
Data: TerraPulse nuclear_explosion dex, exported 2026-09-27: 2,035 detonations from the DOE catalogue (DOE/NV-209), the DNA operation reports, the Mikhailov 1996 Soviet catalogue, the French defence ministry's 2006 annex and British declassified papers. China, India and Pakistan are not in the dex, so this is four states, not the world. Years follow each catalogue's own date (the Soviet catalogue prints Moscow dates). Atmospheric here means every burst that was not underground or underwater: air, tower, balloon, barge, surface, rocket and high-altitude shots. Yields are the catalogues' documented numbers; a band such as "less than 20 kt" counts as a test but adds nothing to the yield bars. Treaty dates are reference dates, not from the dex.