1973 Soviet nuclear tests

1973
Information
Country	Soviet Union
Test site	Balapan, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan; Bashkortostan, Russia; Degelen, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan; Karagandy, Kazakhstan; NZ Area A, Chyornaya Guba, Novaya Zemlya, Russia; NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia; Orenburg, Russia; Sary-Uzen/Murzhik, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan; South Kazakhstan
Period	1973
Number of tests	17
Test type	underground shaft, underground tunnel
Max. yield	4 megatonnes of TNT (17 PJ)
Navigation
Previous test series	1972 Soviet nuclear tests
Next test series	1974 Soviet nuclear tests

The Soviet Union's 1973 nuclear test series^[1] was a group of 17 nuclear tests conducted in 1973. These tests ^{[note 1]} followed the 1972 Soviet nuclear tests series and preceded the 1974 Soviet nuclear tests series.

Soviet Union's 1973 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]	Device [note 8]	Yield [note 9]	Fallout [note 10]	References	Notes
379	16 February 1973 05:03:00.0	ALMT (6 hrs)	Degelen, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 113 49°48′22″N 78°06′12″E / 49.8061°N 78.1034°E	768 m (2,520 ft) +	underground tunnel, weapons development		42 kt		[1][3][4][5][6]
380	19 April 1973 04:32:59.92	ALMT (6 hrs)	Sary-Uzen/Murzhik, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 131 49°59′04″N 77°37′40″E / 49.98442°N 77.62776°E	460 m (1,510 ft) +	underground shaft, weapons development		21 kt		[1][3][4][5][6]
381 - 1	10 July 1973 01:27:00.15	ALMT (6 hrs)	Degelen, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 806 49°46′23″N 78°02′42″E / 49.773°N 78.0451°E	684 m (2,244 ft) +	underground tunnel, weapons development		20 kt		[1][3][4][5][6]
381 - 2	10 July 1973 01:27:00.2	ALMT (6 hrs)	Degelen, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 806 49°46′23″N 78°02′42″E / 49.773°N 78.0451°E	684 m (2,244 ft) +	underground tunnel, weapons development		unknown yield		[1][3][5][6][7]
381 - 3	10 July 1973 01:27:00.2	ALMT (6 hrs)	Degelen, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 806 49°46′23″N 78°02′42″E / 49.773°N 78.0451°E	684 m (2,244 ft) +	underground tunnel, safety experiment		1000 kg		[1][3][5][6][7]
382	23 July 1973 01:23:00.16	ALMT (6 hrs)	Balapan, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 1066 49°58′08″N 78°49′03″E / 49.96889°N 78.8175°E	330 m (1,080 ft) - 465 m (1,526 ft)	underground shaft, peaceful research		212 kt	Venting detected	[1][3][4][5][6]
383 Meridian 3	15 August 1973 02:00:00.0	ALMT (6 hrs)	South Kazakhstan: MN-3 42°46′30″N 67°24′29″E / 42.775°N 67.408°E	- 610 m (2,000 ft)	underground shaft, seismic sounding		6.3 kt		[1][4][5][6][7]	Seismic probing program. 50 km SSW Turkestan.
384 Meridian 1	28 August 1973 03:00:00.0	ALMT (6 hrs)	Karagandy, Kazakhstan: MN-1 50°31′39″N 68°19′17″E / 50.52747°N 68.3214°E	- 400 m (1,300 ft)	underground shaft, seismic sounding		6.3 kt		[1][4][5][6][7]	Seismic probing program. 110 km E Arkalyk.
385 - 1	12 September 1973 06:59:54.81	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: V-1 or A-1 73°19′41″N 54°58′29″E / 73.32819°N 54.97485°E	100 m (330 ft) - 1,500 m (4,900 ft)	underground tunnel, weapons development		3.8 Mt	Venting detected off site, 15 Ci (560 GBq)	[1][4][5][6][8]	This blast lead to a landslide of 80 million tons of rock on Novaya Zemlya.
385 - 2	12 September 1973 06:59:54.8	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: V-1 or A-1 73°19′28″N 54°57′43″E / 73.32441°N 54.96204°E	100 m (330 ft) +	underground tunnel, weapons development		unknown yield		[1][5][6][7][9]
385 - 3	12 September 1973 06:59:54.8	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: V-1 or A-1 73°19′52″N 54°58′54″E / 73.33105°N 54.98173°E	100 m (330 ft) +	underground tunnel, weapons development		unknown yield		[1][5][6][7][9]
385 - 4	12 September 1973 06:59:54.8	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area B, Matochkin Shar, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: V-1 or A-1 73°19′41″N 54°58′29″E / 73.32819°N 54.97485°E	100 m (330 ft) +	underground tunnel, weapons development		unknown yield		[1][5][6][7][9]
386 Meridian 2	19 September 1973 03:00:00.2	ALMT (6 hrs)	South Kazakhstan: MN-2 45°45′29″N 67°49′30″E / 45.758°N 67.825°E	- 400 m (1,300 ft)	underground shaft, seismic sounding		6.3 kt		[1][4][5][6][7]	Seismic probing program. 230 km SSE Dzheskazgan.
387	20 September 1973	ALMT (6 hrs)	Balapan, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 1267 49°57′42″N 78°51′20″E / 49.96167°N 78.85556°E	330 m (1,080 ft) +	underground shaft, weapons development		1000 kg		[1][3][5][6][7]
388	27 September 1973 07:00:01.12	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area A, Chyornaya Guba, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: Yu-4 70°47′34″N 53°50′02″E / 70.79267°N 53.83384°E	30 m (98 ft) - 880 m (2,890 ft)	underground shaft, fundamental science		180 kt	Venting detected, 10 Ci (370 GBq)	[1][4][5][6][8]
389 Sapfir (Sapphire)	30 September 1973 05:00:00.4	SVET (5 hrs)	Orenburg, Russia: E-3 51°39′05″N 54°33′09″E / 51.65132°N 54.55261°E	- 1,145 m (3,757 ft)	underground shaft, cavity excavation		10 kt		[1][4][5][6][7]	Seismic probing program.
391	26 October 1973 04:27:00.14	ALMT (6 hrs)	Degelen, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 205 49°44′49″N 78°07′55″E / 49.7469°N 78.132°E	575 m (1,886 ft) +	underground tunnel, weapon effect		15 kt		[1][3][4][5][6]
390 Kama 2	26 October 1973 05:59:59.5	SVET (5 hrs)	Bashkortostan, Russia: Kama-2 53°39′N 55°24′E / 53.65°N 55.4°E	- 2,030 m (6,660 ft)	underground shaft, cavity excavation		10 kt		[1][4][5][6][7]	Oil and chemical waste water burial.
392	27 October 1973 07:00:00.61	MSK (3 hrs)	NZ Area A, Chyornaya Guba, Novaya Zemlya, Russia: Yu-1 70°50′N 54°03′E / 70.84°N 54.05°E	30 m (98 ft) - 1,900 m (6,200 ft)	underground shaft, weapons development		4 Mt		[1][4][5][6][8]	Highest yield shaft explosion.
393	4 November 1973 03:57:00.0	ALMT (6 hrs)	Balapan, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 1069 50°04′07″N 78°56′00″E / 50.0685°N 78.93328°E	330 m (1,080 ft) +	underground shaft, weapons development		unknown yield	Venting detected	[1][3][5][6][7]
394	14 December 1973 07:46:59.67	ALMT (6 hrs)	Balapan, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 1064 50°02′54″N 78°59′11″E / 50.04826°N 78.98636°E	330 m (1,080 ft) +	underground shaft, weapons development		80 kt		[1][3][4][5][6]
395	31 December 1973 04:03:00.0	ALMT (6 hrs)	Degelen, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: 21p 49°44′37″N 78°05′01″E / 49.74366°N 78.08362°E	676 m (2,218 ft) - 157 m (515 ft)	underground tunnel, weapons development		500 t		[1][3][5][6][7]

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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. All historical timezone data are derived from here:
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Include weapons development, weapon effects, safety test, transport safety test, war, science, joint verification and industrial/peaceful, which may be further broken down.
8. 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.
9. Estimated energy yield in tons, kilotons, and megatons. A ton of TNT equivalent is defined as 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie).
10. 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

1. Yang, Xiaoping; North, Robert; Romney, Carl (August 2000). CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3) (Technical report). SMDC Monitoring Research.
2. "Timezone Historical Database". iana.com. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
3. Khalturin, Vitaly I.; Rautian, Tatyana G.; Richards, Paul G. (2000). "Chemical explosions during 1961-1989 on the Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakhstan" (PDF). Pure and Applied Geophysics. 158: 143–171. doi:10.1007/pl00001153. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
4. Cochran, Thomas B.; Arkin, William M.; Norris, Robert S.; Sands, Jeffrey I. Nuclear Weapons Databook Vol. IV: Soviet Nuclear Weapons. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
5. Podvig, Pavel, ed. (2001). Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
6. USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions 1949 through 1990. Sarov, Russia: RFNC-VNIIEF. 1996. The official Russian list of Soviet tests.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Andrushkin, Vitaly V.; Leith, William (September 1, 2001). The containment of Soviet underground nuclear explosions (PDF) (Open File Report 01-312). USGS. Retrieved December 13, 2013.