atmospheric testing
Open-air nuclear trials
Atmospheric testing refers to the detonation of nuclear weapons in the open air, as opposed to underground or underwater.
This practice was common from 1945 through the early 1960s, when the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty drove most testing underground due to concerns about radioactive fallout spreading through the atmosphere.
The health effects of atmospheric testing are still being studied decades later.
- nuclearOf atomic energy
- atomic bombFission-triggered mass destruction device
- falloutPost-blast atmospheric particles
- nuclear winterWartime cooling catastrophe
- fallout shelterRadiation-proof refuge structure
radiation · radioactive decay · mushroom cloud · Nevada · bikini · Marshall Islands · Cold War · arms race · blast · explosion · ground zero · isotopes · Geiger counter · contamination · desert · plume · above ground · Bikini Atoll
- Nuclearnuclear reactor, atomic bomb, nuclear energy, atomic bombs, uranium
- arms controlarms control, disarmament, nonproliferation, arms deals, arms reduction
atmospheric, testing, atmosphere, atmospheres, atmospherically, tested, tester, testers, retest