Smiling Buddha: India's First Nuclear Test
Witness History11 Juli 2018

Smiling Buddha: India's First Nuclear Test

The inside story of how India secretly developed and exploded an atomic device in 1974. India called it a Peaceful Nuclear Explosion, though the experimental device was in effect a plutonium bomb. The test was seen as a triumph of Indian science and technology, but it led to the suspension of international nuclear co-operation with India, and spurred Pakistan to speed up development of its own nuclear bomb. Alex Last spoke to S.K Sikka, one of India's leading nuclear scientists, about his role in the secret project, code-named Smiling Buddha.

Photo: A crater marks the site of the first Indian underground nuclear test conducted 18 May 1974 at Pokhran in the desert state of Rajasthan. (PUNJAB PHOTO/AFP/Getty Images)

Avsnitt(2000)

The Invention of Instant Noodles

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When TV Came To South Africa

When TV Came To South Africa

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Photographing Martin Luther King and His Family

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In 1969 photo journalist Moneta Sleet became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. He won for the black and white image of Coretta Scott King the widow of Martin Luther King taken at the funeral of the murdered civil rights leader. Farhana Haider has been speaking to Moneta Sleet's son Gregory Sleet about his father's remarkable career capturing many of the images that defined the struggle for racial equality in America.Photo: Moneta Sleet's Pulitzer Prize winning photo of Coretta Scott King and daughter Bernice. Credit. Getty

14 Aug 20189min

Vera Brittain: Anti-Bombing Campaigner

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13 Aug 20188min

Israel's Secret Peace Envoy

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9 Aug 20189min

The Azeri-Armenian Village Swap

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6 Aug 20188min

The First CIA Coup in Latin America

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3 Aug 20188min

The Search for Iran's Nuclear Programme

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