Base 21 Lop Nor
41°30'N 88°30'E
US satellite intelligence imagery of 6-9 August 1964 showed that the previously suspect facility near Lop Nor in Sinkiang was almost certainly a nuclear testing site. Developments at the facility include a ground scar forming about 60 percent of a circle 19,600 feet in diameter around a 325-foot tower (first seen in April 1964 photograph), and work on bunkers near the tower and instrumentation sites at appropriate locations is underway. The outward appearance and apparent rate of construction indicated that the site could be ready for a test in two months or so. The characteristics of the site suggested that it was being prepared for both diagnostic and weapon effect experiments.
China, Lop Nur nuclear test site, 20 Oct 64 --- In October 1964 China joined the nuclear club by conducting its initial atomic test at Lop Nor, in western China. This was the prelude to a series of increasingly sophisticated test shots which continued up to 1996. All known Chinese nuclear weapons tests were conducted at the Lop Nor Test Site.
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/facility/lop_nor.htm
Maintained by Robert Sherman
Originally created by John Pike
Updated Sunday, June 14, 1998 7:16:46 PM
