Soviet Union successfully tested its first atomic bomb on this day in 1949; Know more

On this day, i.e. August 29, in 1949, USSR successfully tested its first atomic bomb, code-named ‘First lighting’, in Kazakhstan. USSR detonated atomic bomb at a remote site at Semipalatinsk and on September 3, a US spy plane flying off coast of Siberia picked up first evidence of rioactivity from explosion. In a bid to measure effects of blast, Soviet scientist even constructed buildings, bridges and or civilian structures in vicinity of bomb. 

According to anecdotes, device h a yield of 22 kilotons. 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki h prompted n leer Joseph Stalin to order development of nuclear weapons within five years. young nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov was charged with leing project. 

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‘First lightening’, also known as ‘RDS-1’, bore a close resemblance to US ‘Fat Man’ bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. It is believed that Soviet espionage h managed to obtain details about US Manhattan Project and ‘Trinity’ test on July 16, 1945. USSR’s device was also a plutonium-based implosion device. 

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Soviet Union espionage 

Klaus Fuchs, a German-born physicist who h helped United States build its first atomic bombs, was later arrested for passing nuclear secrets to Soviets. As per anecdotes, while stationed at US atomic development hequarters during World War II, Fuchs h given Soviets precise information about US atomic program, including a blueprint of “Fat Man” atomic bomb. He h also given everything Los Alamos scientists knew about hyposized hydrogen bomb. 

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revelation of soviet espionage, coupled with loss of US atomic supremacy, led to n US President Harry S Truman to order developments of hydrogen bomb, which was a weapon orised to be hundred times more powerful that atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Within a few years, Cold War nuclear arms race was at full stream. In 1951, US exploded first rmonuclear device in ‘George’ test, to be followed two more years later by USSR with RDS-6 test. 

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As per reports, until end of Cold War, US h conducted nearly 1,032 nuclear tests, and Soviet Union 715. USSR also conducted 456 test at Semipalatinsk test site, with severe consequences for local population, including high cancer rates, genetic defects and deformations in babies. After its independence from USSR, Kazakhstan, however, closed its test site, exactly after 42 years of RDS-1 testing. 

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