Smiling Buddha
1974 CE.
Shown on the map at 27.095°, 71.753°.
Smiling Buddha (MEA designation: Pokhran-I) was the code name of India's first successful nuclear weapon test on 18 May 1974. The nuclear fission bomb was detonated in the Pokhran Test Range of the Indian Army in Rajasthan. As per the United States military intelligence, the operation was named as Happy Krishna. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) described the test as a peaceful nuclear explosion. The bomb was built by scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), in assistance with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) headed by B. D. Nag Chaudhuri under the supervision of the Atomic Energy Commission headed by Homi Sethna. A CIRUS nuclear reactor given by Canada and heavy water (used as a neutron moderator) supplied by the United States were used in the production of nuclear material for the bomb. The preparations for the test and the detonation was conducted in extreme secrecy. It was tightly controlled by prime minister Indira Gandhi with very few people outside the team of scientists being aware of the test. The device was of the implosion-type design with a plutonium core.
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