1990 Soviet nuclear tests

1990
Information
Country	Soviet Union
Test site	Degelen, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan; NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia
Period	1990-1991
Number of tests	2
Test type	underground cavity in tunnel, tunnel
Max. yield	70 kilotonnes of TNT (290 TJ)
Test series chronology

The Soviet Union's 1990 nuclear test series[1] was a group of 2 nuclear tests conducted in 1990-1991. These tests [note 1] followed the 1989 Soviet nuclear tests series .

Soviet Union's 1990 series tests and detonations
Name [note 2]	Date time (UT)	Local time zone [note 3][2]	Location [note 4]	Elevation + height [note 5]	Delivery, [note 6] Purpose [note 7]	Yield [note 9]	References	Notes
715 - 1	24 October 1990 14:57:58.45	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: A13N 73.331°N 54.757°E / 73.331; 54.757 (715 - 1)	100 m (330 ft) - 600 m (2,000 ft)	tunnel, weapons development	70 kt	[1][3][4][5][6]
715 - 2	24 October 1990 14:57:58.5	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: A13N 73.331°N 54.757°E / 73.331; 54.757 (715 - 2)	100 m (330 ft) - 600 m (2,000 ft)	tunnel, weapons development	unknown yield	[1][3][5][6][7]
715 - 3	24 October 1990 14:57:58.5	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: A13N 73.331°N 54.757°E / 73.331; 54.757 (715 - 3)	100 m (330 ft) - 600 m (2,000 ft)	tunnel, weapons development	unknown yield	[1][3][5][6][7]
715 - 4	24 October 1990 14:57:58.5	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: A13N 73.331°N 54.757°E / 73.331; 54.757 (715 - 4)	100 m (330 ft) - 600 m (2,000 ft)	tunnel, weapons development	unknown yield	[1][3][5][6][7]
715 - 5	24 October 1990 14:57:58.5	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: A13N 73.331°N 54.757°E / 73.331; 54.757 (715 - 5)	100 m (330 ft) - 600 m (2,000 ft)	tunnel, weapons development	unknown yield	[1][3][5][6][7]
715 - 6	24 October 1990 14:57:58.5	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: A13N 73.331°N 54.757°E / 73.331; 54.757 (715 - 6)	100 m (330 ft) - 600 m (2,000 ft)	tunnel, weapons development	1000 kg	[1][3][5][6][7]
715 - 7	24 October 1990 14:57:58.5	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: A13N 73.331°N 54.757°E / 73.331; 54.757 (715 - 7)	100 m (330 ft) - 600 m (2,000 ft)	tunnel, weapons development	1000 kg	[1][3][5][6][7]
715 - 8	24 October 1990 14:57:58.5	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: A13N 73.331°N 54.757°E / 73.331; 54.757 (715 - 8)	100 m (330 ft) - 600 m (2,000 ft)	tunnel, weapons development	1000 kg	[1][3][5][6][7]
Left behind (aborted)	May 1991	ALMT (6 hrs)	Degelen, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 108k 49.75565°N 77.98639°E / 49.75565; 77.98639 (Left behind)	- 129 m (423 ft)	underground cavity in tunnel, weapon effect	no yield		Left in a shaft alcove in a mine tunnel in Degelen when the Soviets abandoned the Semipalatinsk site.[8] Destroyed by 400 kg of HE on 31 May, 1995 by a combined Kazakh-Russian project.[8][9]

A bomb test may be a salvo test, defined as two or more explosions "where a period of time between successive individual explosions does not exceed 5 seconds and where the burial points of all explosive devices can be connected by segments of straight lines, each of them connecting two burial points and does not exceed 40 kilometers in length". Mikhailov, V. N., Editor in Chief. "Catalog of World Wide Nuclear Testing". Begell-Atom, LLC. Archived from the original on 2014-04-26. Retrieved 2013-12-18. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
The US, France and Great Britain have code-named their test events, while the USSR and China did not, and therefore have only test numbers (with some exceptions – Soviet peaceful explosions were named). Word translations into English in parentheses unless the name is a proper noun. A dash followed by a number indicates a member of a salvo event. The US also sometimes named the individual explosions in such a salvo test, which results in "name1 – 1(with name2)". If test is canceled or aborted, then the row data like date and location discloses the intended plans, where known.
To convert the UT time into standard local, add the number of hours in parentheses to the UT time; for local daylight saving time, add one additional hour. If the result is earlier than 00:00, add 24 hours and subtract 1 from the day; if it is 24:00 or later, subtract 24 hours and add 1 to the day. Historical time zone data obtained from the IANA time zone database.
Rough place name and a latitude/longitude reference; for rocket-carried tests, the launch location is specified before the detonation location, if known. Some locations are extremely accurate; others (like airdrops and space blasts) may be quite inaccurate. "~" indicates a likely pro-forma rough location, shared with other tests in that same area.
Elevation is the ground level at the point directly below the explosion relative to sea level; height is the additional distance added or subtracted by tower, balloon, shaft, tunnel, air drop or other contrivance. For rocket bursts the ground level is "N/A". In some cases it is not clear if the height is absolute or relative to ground, for example, Plumbbob/John. No number or units indicates the value is unknown, while "0" means zero. Sorting on this column is by elevation and height added together.
Atmospheric, airdrop, balloon, gun, cruise missile, rocket, surface, tower, and barge are all disallowed by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Sealed shaft and tunnel are underground, and remained useful under the PTBT. Intentional cratering tests are borderline; they occurred under the treaty, were sometimes protested, and generally overlooked if the test was declared to be a peaceful use.
Include weapons development, weapon effects, safety test, transport safety test, war, science, joint verification and industrial/peaceful, which may be further broken down.
Designations for test items where known, "?" indicates some uncertainty about the preceding value, nicknames for particular devices in quotes. This category of information is often not officially disclosed.
Estimated energy yield in tons, kilotons, and megatons. A ton of TNT equivalent is defined as 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie).
Radioactive emission to the atmosphere aside from prompt neutrons, where known. The measured species is only iodine-131 if mentioned, otherwise it is all species. No entry means unknown, probably none if underground and "all" if not; otherwise notation for whether measured on the site only or off the site, where known, and the measured amount of radioactivity released.

References

Yang, Xiaoping; North, Robert; Romney, Carl (August 2000). CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3) (Technical report). SMDC Monitoring Research.
"Time Zone Historical Database". iana.com. Archived from the original on 2014-03-11. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
Nuclear explosions in the USSR: The North Test Site reference material, version 4 (PDF) (Technical report). IAEA Dept. of Nuclear Safety and Security. December 1, 2004. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
Kim, Won-Young; Richards, Paul G.; Andrushkin, Vitaly; Ovtchinnikov, Vladimir (April 1, 2001). Borovoye digital seismogram archive for underground nuclear tests during 1966-1996 (PDF) (Technical report). LDEO. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
Podvig, Pavel, ed. (2001). Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262661812. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions 1949 through 1990. Sarov, Russia: RFNC-VNIIEF. 1996. The official Russian list of Soviet tests.
Andrushkin, Vitaly V.; Leith, William (September 1, 2001). The containment of Soviet underground nuclear explosions (PDF) (Open File Report 01-312). USGS. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 9, 2013. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
Nazarbayev, N.A; Shkolnik, V.S; Batyrbekov, E.G; Berezin, S.A; Lukashenko, S.N; Skakov, M.K (2017). Scientific, Technical and Engineering Work to Ensure the Safety of the Former Semipalatinsk Test Site (PDF). Worldwide Pro Media. pp. 92–95. ISBN 978-90-827148-1-4.
Edwards, Rob (10 June 1995). "Blast wakes ghosts of nuclear past". New Scientist. Retrieved 30 January 2021.

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[2] A bomb test may be a salvo test, defined as two or more explosions "where a period of time between successive individual explosions does not exceed 5 seconds and where the burial points of all explosive devices can be connected by segments of straight lines, each of them connecting two burial points and does not exceed 40 kilometers in length". Mikhailov, V. N., Editor in Chief. "Catalog of World Wide Nuclear Testing". Begell-Atom, LLC. Archived from the original on 2014-04-26. Retrieved 2013-12-18. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

[3] The US, France and Great Britain have code-named their test events, while the USSR and China did not, and therefore have only test numbers (with some exceptions – Soviet peaceful explosions were named). Word translations into English in parentheses unless the name is a proper noun. A dash followed by a number indicates a member of a salvo event. The US also sometimes named the individual explosions in such a salvo test, which results in "name1 – 1(with name2)". If test is canceled or aborted, then the row data like date and location discloses the intended plans, where known.

[4] To convert the UT time into standard local, add the number of hours in parentheses to the UT time; for local daylight saving time, add one additional hour. If the result is earlier than 00:00, add 24 hours and subtract 1 from the day; if it is 24:00 or later, subtract 24 hours and add 1 to the day. Historical time zone data obtained from the IANA time zone database.

[6] Rough place name and a latitude/longitude reference; for rocket-carried tests, the launch location is specified before the detonation location, if known. Some locations are extremely accurate; others (like airdrops and space blasts) may be quite inaccurate. "~" indicates a likely pro-forma rough location, shared with other tests in that same area.

[7] Elevation is the ground level at the point directly below the explosion relative to sea level; height is the additional distance added or subtracted by tower, balloon, shaft, tunnel, air drop or other contrivance. For rocket bursts the ground level is "N/A". In some cases it is not clear if the height is absolute or relative to ground, for example, Plumbbob/John. No number or units indicates the value is unknown, while "0" means zero. Sorting on this column is by elevation and height added together.

[8] Atmospheric, airdrop, balloon, gun, cruise missile, rocket, surface, tower, and barge are all disallowed by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Sealed shaft and tunnel are underground, and remained useful under the PTBT. Intentional cratering tests are borderline; they occurred under the treaty, were sometimes protested, and generally overlooked if the test was declared to be a peaceful use.

[9] Include weapons development, weapon effects, safety test, transport safety test, war, science, joint verification and industrial/peaceful, which may be further broken down.

[10] Designations for test items where known, "?" indicates some uncertainty about the preceding value, nicknames for particular devices in quotes. This category of information is often not officially disclosed.

[11] Estimated energy yield in tons, kilotons, and megatons. A ton of TNT equivalent is defined as 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie).

[12] Radioactive emission to the atmosphere aside from prompt neutrons, where known. The measured species is only iodine-131 if mentioned, otherwise it is all species. No entry means unknown, probably none if underground and "all" if not; otherwise notation for whether measured on the site only or off the site, where known, and the measured amount of radioactivity released.

[LT_1-1] Yang, Xiaoping; North, Robert; Romney, Carl (August 2000). CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3) (Technical report). SMDC Monitoring Research.

[5] "Time Zone Historical Database". iana.com. Archived from the original on 2014-03-11. Retrieved March 8, 2014.

[LT_52-13] Nuclear explosions in the USSR: The North Test Site reference material, version 4 (PDF) (Technical report). IAEA Dept. of Nuclear Safety and Security. December 1, 2004. Retrieved December 13, 2013.

[LT_49-14] Kim, Won-Young; Richards, Paul G.; Andrushkin, Vitaly; Ovtchinnikov, Vladimir (April 1, 2001). Borovoye digital seismogram archive for underground nuclear tests during 1966-1996 (PDF) (Technical report). LDEO. Retrieved December 13, 2013.

[LT_31-15] Podvig, Pavel, ed. (2001). Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262661812. Retrieved January 9, 2014.

[LT_7-16] USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions 1949 through 1990. Sarov, Russia: RFNC-VNIIEF. 1996. The official Russian list of Soviet tests.

[LT_201-17] Andrushkin, Vitaly V.; Leith, William (September 1, 2001). The containment of Soviet underground nuclear explosions (PDF) (Open File Report 01-312). USGS. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 9, 2013. Retrieved December 13, 2013.

[Nazarbayev-18] Nazarbayev, N.A; Shkolnik, V.S; Batyrbekov, E.G; Berezin, S.A; Lukashenko, S.N; Skakov, M.K (2017). Scientific, Technical and Engineering Work to Ensure the Safety of the Former Semipalatinsk Test Site (PDF). Worldwide Pro Media. pp. 92–95. ISBN 978-90-827148-1-4.

[Edwards-19] Edwards, Rob (10 June 1995). "Blast wakes ghosts of nuclear past". New Scientist. Retrieved 30 January 2021.