ACCESS TO EVIL
NUCLEAR TESTING MILESTONES 1945-1998

UNITED STATES
Total number of tests: 1,054
(928 at Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas)
The U.S. conducted its first test, 'Trinity,' July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, N.M.
Its most recent test, 'Divider,' was conducted at the Nevada Test Site on Sept. 23, 1992.

FORMER SOVIET UNION
Total number of tests: 715 (969 devices)
The Soviet Union conducted its first test, 'Joe-1,' Aug. 29, 1949, at Semipalatinsk.
The Soviet Union's last test was conducted Oct. 24, 1990, at Novaya Zemlya.

FRANCE
Total number of tests: 210.
France conducted its first test in Reggan, Algeria, on Feb. 13, 1960.
France's last test was conducted at Fangataufa Atoll in the South Pacific onJan. 28, 1996.

UNITED KINGDOM
Total number of tests: 45
The UK conducted its first test, 'Hurricane,' on Oct. 3, 1952, at Monte Bello Isl., Australia.
Its last test, 'Bristol,' was conducted at the Nevada Test Site on Nov. 21, 1991.

CHINA
Total number of tests: 43
China conducted its first test, fusion U-235, on Oct. 16, 1964, at Lop Nor.
China's most recent test was conducted at Lop Nor on July 27, 1996.

INDIA
Total number of tests: 6
India conducted its first test in the Rajasthan Desert on May 11, 1974.
India's most recent test was conducted May 13, 1998, in the Rajasthan Desert.

PAKISTAN
Is widely assumed to have the capability to test a nuclear device.
Indian sources believe two nuclear devices were detonated by Pakistan in 1998.
One on May 28 and the other on May 30 at the Ras Koh range.

ISRAEL
Is widely assumed to have nuclear weapons.

SOUTH AFRICA
In 1993, South Africa announced it had secretly built six nuclear devices, but had since dismantled the devices and its weapons program.

IRAQ
Iraq mounted an ambitious nuclear weapons program, but it was dismantled at the direction of the United Nations after the Persian Gulf War.

NORTH KOREA
North Korea was suspected of having a nuclear program.
The United States brokered a deal in 1994 in which North Korea would shut down its inefficient and unsafeguarded nuclear reactors in exchange for safeguarded, Western-style reactors.

Source: U.S. government, based on official and unofficial reports
-- REVIEW-JOURNALLOAD-DATE: October 2, 2001

View abstracts from the New York Times Prior to September 11, 2001