Project 639

Common card · No. 337944

639 (CIA designation: CHIC-6) was the codename for China's first full-scale test of a two-staged thermonuclear device, on 17 June 1967, yielding 3.3 megatons of TNT. The sixth nuclear test carried out by the People's Republic of China, it was parachuted from a Xi'an H-6 bomber over the Lop Nur Nuclear Test Base in Xinjiang, detonating at a height of 3 km. Chinese thermonuclear research began in 1961, during the early Sino-Soviet split and prior to the first Chinese nuclear test, 596, in 1964. Initial research by Peng Huanwu focused on a layer cake design test involving thermonuclear reactions; Chinese scientist had received limited information about the Soviet RDS-6s design. This was eventually tested as 596L in May 1966. Theoretical development concluded a separate design was necessary for multi-megaton yields that had already been demonstrated by the United States, by the Soviet Union, and by the United Kingdom. A computational effort led by Yu Min developed by November 1965 a two...

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