‘Smiling Buddha’ a near failure?

Feb 24, 2013 |

The first nuclear weapon test carried out by India in 1974 was a “near failure”, claimed a secret US assessment made in 1996, but it does not explain the reasons for it to arrive at such a conclusion.

The National Security Archive (NSA), which obtained these documents from the state department under the Freedom of Information Act and made it public on Friday, noted that such an assertion by the US intelligence community may be a reference to the very low explosive yield of the 1974 nuclear tests.
The nuclear tests codenamed “Operation Smiling Buddha”, tested a thermonuclear device in the Pokhran firing range in Rajasthan. Though the yield of the device is debated since then, it is believed that the actual yield was around 8-12 kilotons of TNT.

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