Decommissioning nuclear missile. Technician dismantling the base of a French S3D intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). The S3D was designed to deliver a TN 61 thermonuclear warhead, producing an explosive force of one megatonne (equivalent to the explosion of one million tonnes of TNT). It had a range of 3000 kilometres. France's S3D missiles were deactivated in September 1996 as part of the modernisation of the French nuclear arsenal. This photograph was taken at the base which housed them at Plateau d'Albion, France. The decommissioning of the base was completed in 1998.