Lop Nor Nuclear Weapons Test Site

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The Chinese nuclear weapons test site Lop Nor ( English Lop Nor Nuclear Weapons Test Base ) was from April 1, 1960 in Xinjiang near Qinggir (Xinge'er; 41 ° 28 ′  N , 88 ° 44 ′  E ) north of the Lop Nor desert in the mountains Kuruk Tagh built as the largest nuclear weapons test site in the world with an area of ​​100,000 km². Between 1964 and 1996 a total of 45 above-ground (most recently on October 16, 1980) and underground nuclear tests for plutonium bombs and, from 1967, also for hydrogen bombs, were carried out there. The control center, the new housing estate ( 42 ° 11 ′ 10 ″  N , 87 ° 3 ′ 38 ″  E ) and the airport for the test site are located in the "Malan Police Department" (马兰 公安 管 区, Pinyin Mǎlán Gōng'ān Guǎnqū ), 20 (10) km west of the community Uxxaktal the Hui (乌什塔拉回族乡) ( 42 ° 11 '38 "  N , 87 ° 19' 30"  O ) of the circle Hoxud , north of Boston lake in a distance of 100 km from the nuclear test site.

After the aboveground nuclear tests, supporters of the Uighur independence movement reported the increased incidence of mysterious illnesses in southwest Xinjiang. Government spokesman denied that people became ill due to nuclear radiation.

The Lop Nor nuclear weapons test site is intended as an interim storage facility and as a possible final storage facility for hot and highly radioactive waste .

Test of a nuclear-armed DF-2 MRBM in Lop Nor

After the first Chinese nuclear weapons were tested in Lop Nor from 1964 onwards, on October 27, 1966, it became the scene of a test with a medium-range missile with a sharp nuclear warhead . The rocket was launched about 800 km away on the Jiuquan Cosmodrome and detonated as planned in the target area with an explosive force of 12 kT. In comparison, this test was relatively weak, because China even detonated hydrogen bombs with a strength of up to 4.3 MT in the atmosphere until 1980.

The successful weapon test was very important for the leadership led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai , because it demonstrated to potential enemies China's nuclear ability to strike even against distant targets. The radical course of confrontation against the USSR, which escalated into severe border fighting on the Ussuri in 1969, would probably have been inconceivable without this type of strategic security; At the same time, the value of China as an alliance for the USA increased and made Nixon's trip to Beijing in 1972 possible.

Reconnaissance flights by the American D-21B drone

American unmanned reconnaissance aircraft of the type D-21B built by the Lockheed company , each equipped with a high-resolution Hycon camera, flew over the Lop Nor nuclear weapons test site under the name of the operation Senior Bowl on November 9, 1969, December 16, 1970, March 4, 1971 and March 20. March 1971.

Only the flights on December 16, 1970 and March 4, 1971 were error-free. The D-21B were first transported by their B-52H carrier aircraft and released in flight, then launched by a rocket, reached three times the speed of sound ( Mach 3 ), rose to an altitude of around 23 km (75,000 feet ), communicated with the B-52H, flew independently over Lop Nor, photographed the nuclear weapons test area and flew on to the ocean, where they dropped the water-protected camera at the programmed location for recovery and then destroyed themselves.

After these flights on December 16, 1970 and March 4, 1971, however, it was not possible to recover the cameras from the ocean. That is why the D-21B, which had already been produced in large numbers, were no longer used later.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 王云丽 et al .: 蘑菇云 背后 的 神秘 科 大人. In: nudt.edu.cn. March 24, 2019, accessed November 4, 2019 (Chinese).
  2. ↑ Wang Yunli et al .: The mysterious man behind the mushroom cloud. In: english.nudt.edu.cn. March 23, 2019, accessed November 4, 2019 .

Coordinates: 41 ° 33 '  N , 88 ° 43'  E