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This article is about the town. For the nuclear tests carried out by India in 1998, see Pokhran-II.

?Pokhran Rajasthan • India
Pokhran
Coordinates: 26°55′N 71°55′E / 26.92, 71.92
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Area • Elevation	• 233 m (764 ft)
District(s)	Jaisalmer
Population	19,186 (2001)

Coordinates: 26°55′N 71°55′E / 26.92, 71.92 Pokhran (also spelled Pokaran) is a city and a municipality located in Jaisalmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a remote location in the Thar Desert region and served as the test site for India's first underground nuclear weapon detonation.

Pokhran was shot into International Limelight on September 7, 1972 when the then , Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gave authorization to the scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) to manufacture the nuclear device they had designed and prepare it for a test. Throughout its development, the device was formally called the "Peaceful Nuclear Explosive", but it was usually referred to as the Smiling Buddha.

The head of the development team was Raja Ramanna. Other key members were P.K. Iyengar, Rajagopala Chidambaram, and Nagapattinam Sambasiva Venkatesan. The project employed no more than 75 scientists and engineers from 1967-1974. Keeping it small served to aid in the preservation of secrecy, according to the researcher Jeffrey Richelson.[1]

The device used a high explosive implosion system developed at the DRDO Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL) in Chandigarh based on the American design from World War II. But the Indian design was simpler and less sophisticated than the American system. The 6 kg of plutonium came from the CIRUS reactor at BARC. The neutron initiator was a Polonium-Beryllium type (again like those used in early U.S. bombs of the Fat Man type) code-named "Flower." The complete core was assembled in Trombay before transportation to the test site.

The fully assembled device had a hexagonal cross section, 1.25 m in diameter and weighed 1400 kg. The device was detonated at 8.05 a.m. in a shaft 107 m under the army Pokhran test range in the Thar Desert (or Great Indian Desert), Rajasthan. Coodinates of the crater are [show location on an interactive map] 27°05′42″N 71°45′11″E / 27.095, 71.753. Officially the yield was reported at 12 kt, though outside estimates of the yield vary from 2 kt to 20 kt. Pokhran is the test site for India's nuclear program. The Atomic Energy Commission of India detonated its first underground nuclear weapon there on May 18, 1974. The Indian government, however, declared that it was not going to make nuclear weapons even though it had acquired the capacity to do so. It claimed that the Pokhran explosion was an effort to harness atomic energy for peaceful purposes and to make India self-reliant in nuclear technology, but subsequently, India conducted five nuclear tests on May 11 and May 13, 1998. Since then, India has declared a moratorium on the testing.

Fort Pokaran, the 14th century citadel also known as “Balagarh” stands amidst the Thar Desert. This monument is the premier fort of the chief of the Champawats (the clan of Rathores) has to its erstwhile aristocratic title attached the prestigious honour ‘Pradhan’ (The Premier Noble) to recognize every Thakur of Pokaran as of the first honour in The Darbar (the court) of the state Marwar-Jodhpur.

Surrounded by rocky, sandy and five salt ranges, POKARAN means “the place of five mirages”. It is en route both from Jodhpur to Jaislamer and Bikaner to Jaislamer.

Pokhran is located at 26.92° N 71.92° E.^[1] It has an average elevation of 233 metres (764 feet).

As of 2001 India census^[2], Pokhran had a population of 19,186. Males constitute 55% of the population and females 45%. Pokhran has an average literacy rate of 56%, lower than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 68%, and female literacy is 41%. In Pokhran, 19% of the population is under 6 years of age.

1. ^ Falling Rain Genomics, Inc. - Map and weather data for Pokhran.
2. ^ Census of India 2001: Data from the 2001 Census, including cities, villages and towns. (Provisional). Census Commission of India. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.