In the summer of 1945, humanity learned to split the atom — and almost
immediately learned to do it again, and again, in deserts, on atolls, deep
underground, and high in the sky. The same physics also gave us a way to keep
the lights on: a slow, contained version of the same chain reaction, humming
away in concrete domes from Idaho to Fujian. This map holds both stories
side by side — the bombs we set off and the reactors we built — on
a single timeline you can scrub through, one year at a time.
2,051 announced detonations between Trinity (1945) and the
most recent DPRK test, totalling roughly 540 megatons of explosive
yield. 1,747 grid-scale power reactors operating, retired, under
construction, or planned, from Obninsk (1954) onward. Toggle either layer
on the map; both share one timeline.