China's Nuclear Programmes

"596" - The Chinese Atomic Bomb

 

Test:	"596"
Time:	07:00 16 October 1964 (GMT)
Location:	Lop Nur Test Ground, 42.35 N, 88.30 E
Test Height and Type:	Tower, 102 m
Yield:	22 Kt

This pure-fission U-235 implosion fission device named "596" wasChina's first nuclear test. The device weighed 1550 kg. No plutonium was available at this time.

"596" on the way to the tower

     "596" Atomic Bomb (43 K)

After Detonation

    "596" Detonation (68 K)

  Lop Nur Nuclear Test Range (67 k).

The Lop Nur Nuclear Test Range four days after the test of "596". Image taken by a KH-4 Corona intelligence satellite. Satellite image courtesy John Pike at the Federation of American Scientists, see the FAS

The Chinese Hydrogen Bomb

 

Test:	Test No. 6
Time:	00:19:07.9 17 June 1967 (GMT)
Location:	Lop Nur Test Ground
Test Height and Type:	Air drop, 2960 m
Yield:	3.3 Mt

This was China's sixth nuclear test, and its first full scale radiation implosion (Teller-Ulam) weapon test. It was conducted only 32 months after the first atomic test, the shortest elapsed time for any nuclear weapons state. The device contained U-235, lithium-6 deuteride, and U-238. It was detonated at 2960 m over the Lop Nur Test Ground after being dropped from an H-6

China's First Hydrogen Bomb

        Going down... (60 K)

           And going back up... (51 K)