Gerboise Bleue Gerboise Bleue ( " blue jerboa " ) was the name of the first French nuclear test . It was an atomic bomb detonated in the middle of the Algerian Sahara desert on 13 February 1960 , during the Algerian War ( 1954 – 62 ) . General Pierre Marie Gallois was instrumental in the endeavour , and earned the nickname of " père de la bombe A " ( " father of the A - bomb " ) . " " is the French word for jerboa , a desert rodent found in the Sahara , while blue is the first color of the French tricolor flag . So the second and third bombs were named respectively " white " ( " Gerboise Blanche " ) and " red " ( " Gerboise Rouge " ) , the remaining colors of the flag . The most powerful first test A - bomb . With Gerboise Bleue , France became the fourth nuclear power , after the United States , the USSR , and the United Kingdom . Gerboise Bleue was by far the largest first test bomb up to that date , larger than the American " Trinity " ( 20 kt ) , the Soviet " RDS - 1 " ( 22 kt ) , or the British " Hurricane " ( 25 kt ) . The yield was 70 kilotons , bigger than these three bombs put together . General De Gaulle stated : In comparison , Fat Man , the Nagasaki bomb , was 22 kilotons , one - third as powerful . Only two other A - bombs tested in the Sahara facilities were more powerful : " Rubis " ( < 100 kt , 20 October 1963 ) , and " Saphir " ( < 150 kt , 25 February 1965 ) . Both were exploded underground at the Tan Afella facility . All other French atomic - bomb tests , including Canopus , were done in French Polynesia from 1966 to 1996 . The last bomb , Xouthos ( < 120 kt ) , was exploded on 27 January 1996 . As the atomic yield of a new bomb design cannot be precisely predicted , the French army planned an explosion between 60 and 70 kt . Gerboise Bleue was a total success , yielding the full designed power . Critics and international reactions . Due to increasing criticism , France stopped its atmospheric tests in the desert , and conducted further underground tests months after Algerian independence in 1962 according to secret agreements with the FLN . From February 1960 to April 1961 , France tested a limited number of atmospheric bombs in Reggane facility ' s ( " Centre Saharien d ' Expérimentations Militaires " , or " Saharan Center for Military Experiments " ) : the four Gerboise bombs . Three of them were only " engins de secours " ( " emergency devices " ) , with yields deliberately reduced to less than 5 kilotons . With the underground tests the sequence designation was changed to jewel names , starting in November 1961 with " " Agathe " " ( agate ; < 20 kt ) . On 1 May 1962 , during the second test , the " Beryl incident " ( " incident de Béryl " ) occurred , which was declassified many years later . Five months after the last Gerboise A - bomb , the Soviet Union responded by breaking its atmospheric tests moratorium , settled " de facto " since late 1958 with the United States and the United Kingdom . The USSR conducted many improvement tests , starting in September 1961 with a series of 136 large H - bombs . The series included the most powerful bomb ever tested , the 50 - megaton ( 50 , 000 kt ) " Tsar Bomba " , which was detonated over Novaya Zemlya . Following the USSR , the United States reactivated its own atmospheric test program with a series of 40 explosions from April 1962 to November 1962 . This series included two powerful H - bombs topping 7 . 45 Mt and 8 . 3 Mt . China also launched its own nuclear program , resulting in the A - bomb " 596 " ( 22 kt ) tested on 16 October 1964 , and the H - bomb Test No . 6 ( 3 . 3 Mt ) , tested 17 June 1967 . In 1968 , France detonated its first thermonuclear weapon , Canopus ( 2 . 6Mt ) , at the new facility at Fangataufa , a desert atoll in French Polynesia . Programme . " Gerboise Rouge " was followed by a joined exercise , in which infantry , helicopters and armour recognised the contaminated area . " Gerboise Verte " was intended to yield between 6 and 18 kilotonnes , but effectively yielded less than 1 . Like " Gerboise Rouge " , it was followed by a joint exercise in the contaminated area , codenamed " Garigliano " . The test had been patched up hastily and fired prematurely because of the Algiers putsch , as it was feared that the nuclear bomb could fall in the hands of seditious elements .