1.
TNT equivalent
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TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy defined by convention to be 4.184 gigajoules. The convention intends to compare the destructiveness of an event with that of conventional explosives, the kiloton is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 terajoules. The megaton is a unit of equal to 4.184 petajoules. The kiloton and megaton of TNT have traditionally used to describe the energy output. The TNT equivalent appears in various nuclear weapon control treaties, and has used to characterize the energy released in such other highly destructive events as an asteroid impact. A gram of TNT releases 2673–6702 J upon explosion, the energy liberated by one gram of TNT was arbitrarily defined as a matter of convention to be 4184 J, which is exactly one kilocalorie. The measured, pure heat output of a gram of TNT is only 2724 J, alternative TNT equivalency can be calculated as a function of when in the detonation the value is measured and which property is being compared. A kiloton of TNT can be visualized as a cube of TNT8.46 metres on a side, the RE factor is the relative mass of TNT to which an explosive is equivalent, the greater the RE, the more powerful the explosive. This enables engineers to determine the proper masses of different explosives when applying blasting formulas developed specifically for TNT. For example, if a timber-cutting formula calls for a charge of 1 kg of TNT, then based on octanitrocubanes RE factor of 2.38, using PETN, engineers would need 1. 0/1.66 kg to obtain the same effects as 1 kg of TNT. With ANFO or ammonium nitrate, they would require 1. 0/0.74 kg or 1. 0/0.42 kg, *, TBX or EBX, in a small, confined space, may have over twice the power of destruction. The total power of aluminized mixtures strictly depends on the condition of explosions, guide for the Use of the International System of Units. National Institute of Standards and Technology, nuclear Weapons FAQ Part 1.3 Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb, cooper, Paul W. Explosives Engineering, New York, Wiley-VCH, ISBN 0-471-18636-8 HQ Department of the Army, Field Manual 5-25, Explosives and Demolitions, Washington, D. C. Pentagon Publishing, pp. 83–84, ISBN 0-9759009-5-1 Explosives - Compositions, Alexandria, VA, thermobaric Explosives, Advanced Energetic Materials,2004. THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS, nap. edu, retrieved September 2004
2.
Nuclear weapons testing
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Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that developed nuclear weapons tested them, the first nuclear device was detonated as a test by the United States at the Trinity site on July 16,1945, with a yield approximately equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT. The first thermonuclear weapon technology test of engineer device, codenamed Mike, was tested at the Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands on November 1,1952, also by the United States. The largest nuclear weapon ever tested was the Tsar Bomba of the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemlya on October 30,1961, with the largest yield ever seen, the treaty permitted underground nuclear testing. France continued atmospheric testing until 1974, and China continued until 1980, underground tests in the United States continued until 1991, the Soviet Union until 1990, the United Kingdom until 1991, and both China and France until 1996. Non-signatories India and Pakistan last tested nuclear weapons in 1998, North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006,2009,2013, and 2016. The most recent confirmed nuclear test occurred in September 2016 in North Korea, Nuclear weapons tests have historically been divided into four categories reflecting the medium or location of the test. Atmospheric testing designates explosions that take place in the atmosphere, Nuclear explosions close enough to the ground to draw dirt and debris into their mushroom cloud can generate large amounts of nuclear fallout due to irradiation of the debris. This definition of atmospheric is used in the Limited Test Ban Treaty, underground testing refers to nuclear tests conducted under the surface of the earth, at varying depths. True underground tests are intended to be contained and emit a negligible amount of fallout. Unfortunately these nuclear tests do occasionally vent to the surface, producing from nearly none to considerable amounts of debris as a consequence. In 1976, the United States and the USSR agreed to limit the maximum yield of underground tests to 150 kt with the Threshold Test Ban Treaty. Underground testing also falls into two categories, tunnel tests in generally horizontal tunnel drifts, and shaft tests in vertically drilled holes. Exoatmospheric testing refers to tests conducted above the atmosphere. The test devices are lifted on rockets, underwater testing results from nuclear devices being detonated underwater, usually moored to a ship or a barge. Tests of this nature have usually been conducted to evaluate the effects of weapons against naval vessels. Another way to nuclear tests are by the number of explosions that constitute the test.1 second. The USSR has exploded up to eight devices in a single salvo test, Pakistans second, almost all lists in the literature are lists of tests, in the lists in Wikipedia, the lists are of explosions
3.
Universal Time
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Universal Time is a time standard based on Earths rotation. It is a continuation of Greenwich Mean Time, i. e. the mean solar time on the Prime Meridian at Greenwich, London. In fact, the expression Universal Time is ambiguous, as there are versions of it. All of these versions of UT, except for UTC, are based on Earths rotation relative to distant celestial objects, UTC is based on International Atomic Time, with leap seconds added to keep it within 0.9 second of UT1. Prior to the introduction of time, each municipality throughout the civilized world set its official clock, if it had one. Greenwich Mean Time, where all clocks in Britain were set to the time, was established to solve this problem. Chronometers or telegraphy were used to synchronize these clocks, Standard time, as originally proposed by Scottish-Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming in 1879, divided the world into twenty-four time zones, each one covering 15 degrees of longitude. All clocks within each zone would be set to the time as the others. This location was chosen because by 1884 two-thirds of all nautical charts, the conference did not adopt Flemings time zones because they were outside the purpose for which it was called, which was to choose a basis for universal time. During the period between 1848 and 1972, all of the countries adopted time zones based on the Greenwich meridian. The term Greenwich Mean Time persists, however, in usage to this day in reference to civil timekeeping. Based on the rotation of the Earth, time can be measured by observing celestial bodies crossing the meridian every day. Astronomers found that it was accurate to establish time by observing stars as they crossed a meridian rather than by observing the position of the Sun in the sky. Nowadays, UT in relation to International Atomic Time is determined by Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations of distant quasars, the rotation of the Earth and UT are monitored by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service. The International Astronomical Union also is involved in setting standards, the rotation of the Earth is somewhat irregular, and is very gradually slowing due to tidal acceleration. Furthermore, the length of the second was determined from observations of the Moon between 1750 and 1890. All of these cause the mean solar day, on the average, to be slightly longer than the nominal 86,400 SI seconds. As UT is slightly irregular in its rate, astronomers introduced Ephemeris Time, thus, civil broadcast standards for time and frequency usually follow International Atomic Time closely, but occasionally step in order to prevent them from drifting too far from mean solar time
4.
Elevation
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GIS or geographic information system is a computer system that allows for visualizing, manipulating, capturing, and storage of data with associated attributes. GIS offers better understanding of patterns and relationships of the landscape at different scales, tools inside the GIS allow for manipulation of data for spatial analysis or cartography. A topographical map is the type of map used to depict elevation. In a Geographic Information System, digital models are commonly used to represent the surface of a place. Digital terrain models are another way to represent terrain in GIS, USGS is developing a 3D Elevation Program to keep up with growing needs for high quality topographic data. 3DEP is a collection of enhanced elevation data in the form of high quality LiDAR data over the conterminous United States, Hawaii, there are three bare earth DEM layers in 3DEP which are nationally seamless at the resolution of 1/3,1, and 2 arcseconds. This map is derived from GTOPO30 data that describes the elevation of Earths terrain at intervals of 30 arcseconds and it uses color and shading instead of contour lines to indicate elevation. Hypsography is the study of the distribution of elevations on the surface of the Earth, the term originates from the Greek word ὕψος hypsos meaning height. Most often it is used only in reference to elevation of land, related to the term hypsometry, the measurement of these elevations of a planets solid surface are taken relative to mean datum, except for Earth which is taken relative to the sea level. In the troposphere, temperatures decrease with altitude and this lapse rate is approximately 6.5 °C/km. S
5.
Nuclear weapon yield
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An explosive yield of one terajoule is 0.239 kt of TNT. The yield-to-weight ratio is the amount of weapon yield compared to the mass of the weapon, the practical maximum yield-to-weight ratio for fusion weapons has been estimated to six megatons of TNT per metric ton of bomb mass. Yields of 5.2 megatons/ton and higher have been reported for large weapons constructed for use in the early 1960s. Most artificial non-nuclear explosions are considerably smaller than even what are considered to be very small nuclear weapons, the yield-to-weight ratio is the amount of weapon yield compared to the mass of the weapon. According to nuclear-weapons designer Ted Taylor, the practical maximum yield-to-weight ratio for fusion weapons is about 6 megatons of TNT per metric ton. The Taylor limit is not derived from first principles, and weapons with yields as high as 9.5 megatons per metric ton have been designed and built. The 25 Mt yield option reported for the B41 would give it a ratio of 5.1 megatons of TNT per metric ton. This results in the B41 still retaining the record for the highest Yield-to-weight weapon ever designed, in 1963 DOE declassified statements that the U. S. had the technological capability of deploying a 35 Mt warhead on the Titan II, or a 50-60 Mt gravity bomb on B-52s. Neither weapon was pursued, but either would require yield-to-weight ratios superior to a 25 Mt Mk-41, for current smaller US weapons, yield is 600 to 2200 kilotons of TNT per metric ton. By comparison, for the very small devices such as the Davy Crockett it was 0.4 to 40 kilotons of TNT per metric ton. For historical comparison, for Little Boy the yield was only 4 kilotons of TNT per metric ton, and for the largest Tsar Bomba, the yield was 2 megatons of TNT per metric ton. The largest pure-fission bomb ever constructed Ivy King had a 500 kiloton yield, however, there is no known upper yield limit for a fusion bomb. For example, the Mk-36 bomb as built had a ratio of 1.25 megatons of TNT per metric ton. Delivery size limits can be estimated to ascertain limits to delivery of high yield weapons. If the full 250 metric ton payload of the Antonov An-225 aircraft could be used, likewise, the maximum limit of a missile-delivered weapon is determined by the missile gross payload capacity. The large Russian SS-18 ICBM has a capacity of 7,200 kg. A Saturn V-scale missile could deliver over 120 tons, giving a maximum yield of about 700 megatons. The following list is of nuclear explosions
6.
Nuclear fallout
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It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes, but such dust can also originate from a damaged nuclear plant. Fallout may get entrained with the products of a pyrocumulus cloud and this radioactive dust, usually consisting of fission products mixed with bystanding atoms that are neutron activated by exposure, is a highly dangerous kind of radioactive contamination. An air burst can eventually produce worldwide fallout, a ground burst can produce possibly much more severe, local fallout. These particles may be drawn up into the stratosphere, particularly if the explosive yield exceeds 10 kt. Initially little was known about the dispersion of nuclear fallout on a global scale, the AEC assumed that fallout would be dispersed evenly across the globe by atmospheric winds and gradually settle to the Earths surface after weeks, months, and even years as worldwide fallout. This hazard is less pertinent than local fallout, which is of much greater immediate operational concern, in a land or water surface burst, heat vaporizes large amounts of earth or water, which is drawn up into the radioactive cloud. This material becomes radioactive when it condenses with fission products and other radiocontaminants that have become neutron-activated, the table below summarizes the abilities of common isotopes to form fallout. Some radiation taints large amounts of land and drinking water causing formal mutations throughout animal and human life. The larger particles spill out of the stem and cascade down the outside of the fireball in a downdraft even as the cloud rises, more than half the total bomb debris lands on the ground within about 24 hours as local fallout. Chemical properties of the elements in the control the rate at which they are deposited on the ground. Severe local fallout contamination can extend far beyond the blast and thermal effects, the ground track of fallout from an explosion depends on the weather from the time of detonation onwards. In stronger winds, fallout travels faster but takes the time to descend, so although it covers a larger path. Thus, the width of the pattern for any given dose rate is reduced where the downwind distance is increased by higher winds. The total amount of activity deposited up to any time is the same irrespective of the wind pattern. But thunderstorms can bring down activity as rain more rapidly than dry fallout, particularly if the cloud is low enough to be below, or mixed with. There are two considerations for the location of an explosion, height and surface composition. A nuclear weapon detonated in the air, called an air burst, in case of water surface bursts, the particles tend to be rather lighter and smaller, producing less local fallout but extending over a greater area. The particles contain mostly sea salts with some water, these can have a cloud seeding effect causing local rainout and areas of high local fallout
7.
Nevada Test Site
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Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a 1-kiloton-of-TNT bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat on 27 January 1951. Many of the images of the nuclear era come from the NTS. During the 1950s, the clouds from the 100 atmospheric tests could be seen for almost 100 mi. The city of Las Vegas experienced noticeable seismic effects, and the distant mushroom clouds, St. George, Utah, received the brunt of the fallout of above-ground nuclear testing in the Yucca Flats/Nevada Test Site. Winds routinely carried the fallout of these tests directly through St. George, the vast majority—828 of the 928 total nuclear tests—were underground. Those arrested included the astronomer Carl Sagan and the actors Kris Kristofferson, Martin Sheen, the Nevada Test Site contains 28 areas,1,100 buildings,400 miles of paved roads,300 miles of unpaved roads, ten heliports, and two airstrips. The Nevada Test Site was established as a 680-square-mile area by President Harry Truman on December 18,1950, within the Nellis Air Force Gunnery, the Nevada Test Site was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices from 1951 to 1992,928 announced nuclear tests occurred there. The site is covered with subsidence craters from the testing, the NTS was the United States primary location for tests in the 500-to-1,000 kt range. 126 tests were conducted elsewhere, including most larger tests, many of these occurred at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands. During the 1950s, the clouds from atmospheric tests could be seen for almost 100 mi. The city of Las Vegas experienced noticeable seismic effects, and the distant mushroom clouds, the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site was Little Feller I of Operation Sunbeam, on 17 July 1962. Although the United States did not ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, it honors the articles of the treaty, subcritical tests not involving a critical mass continue. It created a crater 1,280 feet wide and 320 feet deep that can still be seen today, the site was scheduled to be used to conduct the testing of a 1, 100-ton conventional explosive in an operation known as Divine Strake in June 2006. The bomb is an alternative to nuclear bunker busters. After objections from Nevada and Utahs members of Congress, the operation was postponed until 2007, on 22 February 2007, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency officially canceled the experiment. On December 7,2012 the most-recent explosion was conducted, an underground sub-critical test of the properties of plutonium, NTS also performed piggyback testing of effects of nuclear detonation during the above-ground tests. Vehicles, shelters, utility stations, and other structures were placed at distances from the Ground Zero detonation point of each weapon. Homes and commercial buildings were built to typical of American and European cities
8.
Project Rio Blanco
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Project Rio Blanco was an underground nuclear test that took place on May 17,1973 in Rio Blanco County, Colorado, approximately 36 miles northwest of Rifle. Three 33-kiloton nuclear devices were detonated simultaneously in a single emplacement well at depths of 1,779,1,899 and 2,039 m below ground level. The tests were conducted in fine-grain, low-permeability sandstone lenses at the base of the Fort Union Formation and this was the third and final natural-gas-reservoir stimulation test in the Plowshare program, which was designed to develop peaceful uses for nuclear energy. The two previous tests were Project Gasbuggy in New Mexico and Project Rulison in Colorado, the United States Atomic Energy Commission conducted the test in partnership with CER Geonuclear Corporation and Continental Oil Company. A placard, erected in 1976, now marks the site where the test was conducted, the site is accessible via a dirt road, Rio Blanco County Route 29. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of Energy
9.
Project Plowshare
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Project Plowshare was the overall United States term for the development of techniques to use nuclear explosives for peaceful construction purposes. It was the US portion of what are called Peaceful Nuclear Explosions and this became the first crater on Earth definitely proven to be from an impact event. Negative impacts from Project Plowshare’s 27 nuclear projects generated significant public opposition and these consequences included Tritiated water and the deposition of fallout from radioactive material being injected into the atmosphere before underground testing was mandated by treaty. A similar Soviet program was carried out under the name Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy, at the peak of the Atomic Age, the United States Federal government initiated Project Plowshare, involving peaceful nuclear explosions. Other proposals involved blasting underground caverns for water, natural gas, serious consideration was also given to using these explosives for various mining operations. One proposal suggested using nuclear blasts to connect underground aquifers in Arizona, another plan involved surface blasting on the western slope of Californias Sacramento Valley for a water transport project. At the end of the program, an objective was to develop nuclear explosives. In the 1960s, a proposal was suggested for a modified in situ shale oil extraction process which involved creation of a rubble chimney using a nuclear explosive, however, this approach was abandoned for a number of technical reasons. It was never carried out due to concerns for the native populations, the shot, Sedan, displaced more than 12 million short tons of soil and resulted in a radioactive cloud that rose to an altitude of 12,000 ft. The radioactive dust plume headed northeast and then east towards the Mississippi River, the first PNE blast was Project Gnome, conducted on December 10,1961 in a salt bed 24 mi southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The explosion released 3.1 kilotons of energy yield at a depth of 361 meters which resulted in the formation of a 170 ft diameter,80 ft high cavity, the most public of these involved the generation of steam which could then be used to generate electricity. Another objective was the production of radioisotopes and their recovery. Another experiment involved neutron time-of-flight physics, a fourth experiment involved geophysical studies based upon the timed seismic source. Only the last objective was considered a complete success, the blast unintentionally vented radioactive steam while the press watched. The partly developed Project Coach detonation experiment that was to follow adjacent to the Gnome test was then canceled, over the next 11 years 26 more nuclear explosion tests were conducted under the U. S. PNE program. The radioactive blast debris from 839 U. S. underground nuclear test explosions remains buried in-place and has been judged impractical to remove by the DOEs Nevada Site Office, Costs for the program have been estimated at more than $770 million. Three nuclear explosion experiments were intended to stimulate the flow of gas from tight formation gas fields. The final PNE blast took place on 17 May 1973, under Fawn Creek,76.4 km north of Grand Junction, three 30 kiloton detonations took place simultaneously at depths of 1,758,1,875, and 2,015 meters
10.
Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
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The impetus for the test ban was provided by rising public anxiety over the magnitude of nuclear tests, particularly tests of new thermonuclear weapons, and the resulting nuclear fallout. A test ban was also seen as a means of slowing nuclear proliferation, though the PTBT did not halt proliferation or the arms race, its enactment did coincide with a substantial decline in the concentration of radioactive particles in the atmosphere. The PTBT was signed by the governments of the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, the treaty formally went into effect on 10 October 1963. Since then,123 other states have become party to the treaty, ten states have signed but not ratified the treaty. In 1952–53, the US and Soviet Union detonated their first thermonuclear weapons, in 1954, the US Castle Bravo test at Bikini Atoll had a yield of 15 megatons of TNT, more than doubling the expected yield. In the same year, a Soviet test sent radioactive particles over Japan, around the same time, victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima visited the US for medical care, which attracted significant public attention. Between 1951 and 1958, the US conducted 166 atmospheric tests, the Soviet Union conducted 82, in 1945, Britain and Canada made an early call for an international discussion on controlling atomic power. At the time, the US had yet to formulate a policy or strategy on nuclear weapons. Taking advantage of this was Vannevar Bush, who had initiated and administered the Manhattan Project, as a first step in this direction, Bush proposed an international agency dedicated to nuclear control. Truman to help construct US nuclear weapons policy, a version of the Acheson-Lilienthal plan was presented to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission as the Baruch Plan in June 1946. The Baruch Plan proposed that an International Atomic Development Authority would control all research on and material, the Soviet Union dismissed the Baruch Plan as a US attempt to secure its nuclear dominance, and called for the US to halt weapons production and release technical information on its program. The Acheson–Lilienthal paper and Baruch Plan would serve as the basis for US policy into the 1950s, between 1947 and 1954, the US and Soviet Union discussed their demands within the United Nations Commission for Conventional Disarmament. A series of events in 1954, including the Castle Bravo test and spread of fallout from a Soviet test over Japan, additionally, by 1954, both US and Soviet Union had assembled large nuclear stockpiles, reducing hopes of complete disarmament. Interest in nuclear control and efforts to stall proliferation of weapons to other states grew as the Soviet Unions nuclear capabilities increased, in the same year, the British Labour Party, then led by Clement Attlee, called on the UN to ban testing of thermonuclear weapons. 1955 marks the beginning of negotiations, as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev first proposed talks on the subject in February 1955. On 10 May 1955, the Soviet Union proposed a test ban before the UN Disarmament Commissions Committee of Five, the May 1955 proposal is now seen evidence of Khrushchevs new approach to foreign policy, as Khrushchev sought to mend relations with the West. The proposal would serve as the basis of the Soviet negotiating position through 1957, Eisenhower had supported nuclear testing after World War II. In 1947, he rejected arguments by Stafford L. Warrens arguments were lent credence in the scientific community, everybody seems to think that were skunks, saber-rattlers and warmongers
11.
Operation Argus
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Operation Argus was a series of United States nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted during August and September 1958 over the South Atlantic Ocean. They were performed by the Defense Nuclear Agency, in conjunction with the Explorer 4 space mission, Operation Argus was conducted between the nuclear test series Operation Hardtack I and Operation Hardtack II. Contractors from Lockheed Aircraft Corporation as well as a few personnel, atomic Energy Commission were on hand as well. Such belts would be similar in effect to the Van Allen radiation belts, such radiation belts were viewed as having possible tactical use in war. Prior to Argus, Hardtack Teak had shown disruption of communications from a nuclear blast. Argus was implemented rapidly after inception due to forthcoming bans on atmospheric and exoatmospheric testing, consequently, the tests were conducted within a mere half year of conception. Two missiles, with warheads 136–227 kg to be launched one month of each other. The missiles were to be detonated at altitudes of 200–1,000 mi, both detonations should occur near the geomagnetic equator. Satellites were to be placed in equatorial and polar orbits, with perigees of roughly 322 kilometres and apogees of roughly 2,900 kilometres or greater. These satellites were to be used to measure electron density over time, measurements were to be taken before the shots to determine a baseline, as well as during and after the events. Sounding rockets, fired from appropriate ground locations, were to carry the same instrumentation as the satellites, ground stations to be used to study effects on radio astronomy and radar probing as well as auroral measurements. Originally Argus was designated Hardtack-Argus, and later Floral, for reasons of security, both names were dropped in favor of the independent name Argus. Funding was provided by the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, the predecessor of todays Defense Threat Reduction Agency, total funds allotted for the project were US$9,023,000. The United States Navy Task Force 88, was formed April 28,1958, TF-88 was organized solely to conduct Operation Argus. Once Argus was completed, the force was dissolved. Some of these records have been destroyed or lost in the time period. Of particular note among the documents were the film records. This has proved contentious due to the number of leukemia claims among TF-88 participants to the Veterans Administration
12.
Operation Castle
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Operation Castle was a United States series of high-yield nuclear tests by Joint Task Force 7 at Bikini Atoll beginning in March 1954. It followed Operation Upshot–Knothole and preceded Operation Teapot, Operation Castle was considered by government officials to be a success as it proved the feasibility of deployable dry fuel designs for thermonuclear weapons. There were technical difficulties with some of the tests, one device had a much lower than predicted. Public reaction to the tests and an awareness of the effects of nuclear fallout has been attributed as being part of the motivation for the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963. Bikini Atoll had previously hosted nuclear testing in 1946 as part of Operation Crossroads where the fourth and fifth atomic weapons were detonated in Bikini Lagoon. Since then, US nuclear weapons testing had moved to Enewetok Atoll to take advantage of larger islands. Both Atolls were part of the US Pacific Proving Grounds, the extremely high yields of the Castle weapons caused concern within the AEC that potential damage to the limited infrastructure already established at Enewetak would delay other operations. The Ivy Mike test was the worlds first hydrogen bomb, producing a full-scale thermonuclear or fusion explosion, the Ivy Mike device used liquid deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, making it a wet bomb. The complex dewar mechanisms needed to store the liquid deuterium at cryogenic temperatures made the three stories tall and 82 tons in total weight, far from being a deliverable weapon. The final result incorporated lithium deuteride as the fuel in the Teller-Ulam design, vastly reducing size and weight. Operation Castle was charted to test four dry fuel designs, two wet bombs, and one smaller device, approval for Operation Castle was communicated to JTF-7 by Major General Kenneth D. Nichols, General Manager of the AEC, on 21 January 1954. Operation Castle was organized into seven experiments, all but one of which were to place at Bikini Atoll. Below is the original test schedule, Operation Castle was intended to test lithium deuteride as a thermonuclear fusion fuel. A solid at room temperature, LiD, if it worked, the same Teller-Ulam principle would be used as in the Ivy Mike Sausage device, but the fusion reactions were different. Ivy Mike fused deuterium with deuterium, but the LiD devices would fuse deuterium with tritium, the tritium was produced during the explosion by irradiating the lithium with fast neutrons. Bravo Yankee and Union used lithium enriched in the Li-6 isotope while Romeo, the first one started production in the fall of 1953. As a hedge, development of liquid deuterium weapons continued in parallel, the Ramrod and Jughead devices were liquid fuel designs greatly reduced in size and weight from their Ivy Mike Sausage predecessor. The Jughead device was ultimately weaponized and saw limited fielding in the inventory until the dry fuel weapons were common, Nectar was not a fusion weapon in the same sense as the rest of the Castle series
13.
Project Chariot
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The project originated as part of Operation Plowshare, a research project to find peaceful uses for nuclear explosives. The plan was championed by Edward Teller, who traveled throughout the state touting the harbor as an important economic development for Americas newest state, Alaskan political leaders, newspaper editors, the state universitys president, even church groups all rallied in support of the massive detonation. Congress had passed the Alaskan Statehood Act just a few weeks before, an editorial in the 24 July 1960 Fairbanks News-Miner said, We think the holding of a huge nuclear blast in Alaska would be a fitting overture to the new era which is opening for our state. Opposition came from the tiny Inupiat Eskimo village of Point Hope, a few scientists engaged in environmental studies under AEC contract, and a handful of conservationists. The grassroots protest soon was picked up by organizations with national reach, such as The Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, and Barry Commoners Committee for Nuclear Information. In 1962, facing increased public uneasiness over the risk and the potential to disrupt the lives of the Eskimos. It has never been formally canceled, in addition to the objections of the local population, no practical use of such a harbor was ever identified. The investigations noted that radiation from world-wide fallout was moving with unusual efficiency up the chain in the Arctic, from lichen, to caribou. Material from a 1962 nuclear explosion at the Nevada Test Site was transported to the Chariot site in August 1962, used in several experiments, thirty years later, the disposal was discovered in archival documents by a University of Alaska researcher. State officials immediately traveled to the site and found low levels of radioactivity at a depth of two feet in the burial mound, outraged residents of the Inupiat village of Point Hope demanded the removal of the contaminated soil, which the government did at considerable expense. Sun in a Bottle, The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking, vandegraft, Douglas L Project Chariot, Nuclear Legacy of Cape Thompson. Proceedings of the U. S. William, and Charles Diters, bureau of Indian Affairs, Alaska Region regional archaeology report under the National Historic Preservation Act. Project Chariot, The Nuclear Legacy of Cape Thompson, Alaska
14.
Operation Crossroads
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Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear tests since Trinity in July 1945. The purpose of the tests was to investigate the effect of weapons on warships. They were conducted by Joint Army/Navy Task Force One, headed by Vice Admiral William H. P. Blandy rather than by the Manhattan Project, which had developed nuclear weapons during World War II. The bomb was named Gilda after Rita Hayworths character in the 1946 film Gilda and it detonated 520 feet above the target fleet and caused less than the expected amount of ship damage because it missed its aim point by 2,130 feet. The bomb was known as Helen of Bikini and was detonated 90 feet underwater on July 25,1946, radioactive sea spray caused extensive contamination. A third deep-water test named Charlie was planned for 1947 but was canceled primarily because of the United States Navys inability to decontaminate the target ships after the Baker test, ultimately, only nine target ships were able to be scrapped rather than scuttled. Charlie was rescheduled as Operation Wigwam, a deep-water shot conducted in 1955 off the California coast, bikinis native residents agreed to evacuate the island, and were evacuated on board the LST-861, with most moving to the Rongerik Atoll. In the 1950s, a series of large thermonuclear tests rendered Bikini unfit for farming and fishing because of radioactive contamination. Bikini remains uninhabited as of 2015, though it is visited by sport divers. The Baker tests radioactive contamination of all the ships was the first case of immediate. Chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. The first proposal to test nuclear weapons against naval warships was made on August 16,1945, by Lewis Strauss, with very few bombs available, he suggested a large number of targets widely dispersed over a large area. The Strauss test would be designed to demonstrate ship survivability and he proposed dropping an atomic bomb on captured Japanese ships and suggested, The resulting explosion should prove to us just how effective the atomic bomb is when used against the giant naval ships. Meanwhile, the Navy proceeded with its own plan, which was revealed at a conference on October 27 by the Commander in Chief. It involved between 80 and 100 target ships, most of them surplus U. S. ships. As the Army and the Navy maneuvered for control of the tests, Assistant Secretary of War Howard C. Peterson observed, To the public, If the Navy withstands better than the public imagines it will, in the public mind the Navy will have won. The Armys candidate to direct the tests, Major General Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project which built the bombs, the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided that because the Navy was contributing the most men and materiel, the test should be headed by a naval officer
15.
Operation Crosstie
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Operation Crosstie was a series of 48 nuclear tests conducted by the United States in 1967–1968 at the Nevada Test Site. These tests followed the Operation Latchkey series and preceded the Operation Bowline series, the blast designated Gasbuggy involved an underground detonation, intended to stimulate production of natural gas by cracking the rock in the underground formation of its deposit. The test proceeded as expected, but not only did the production not increase as much as expected, buggy was a Plowshare test designed to excavate a channel. It was a detonation of 5 devices, placed 150 feet apart and 150 feet below the surface that resulted in a channel 300 feet wide,900 feet long. Or 65 feet deep and 254 feet wide, according to Declassified U. S. film, the USSR conducted a similar salvo-test to investigate the use of nuclear explosions in the construction of the Pechora–Kama Canal project. On March 23,1971, three simultaneously detonated 15 kiloton underground nuclear charges were exploded in the Taiga test. The Faultless test was a calibration test conducted in a mine cavity 3,200 feet beneath the Hot Creek Valley near Tonopah, Nevada and this test was conducted to see if the land was fit for testing a 5 megaton thermonuclear warhead for the Spartan missile. The test failed because of the degree of faulting that resulted in the area around the test. It was decided that the land was unfit for multi-megaton nuclear tests, so a similar calibration test was conducted at Amchitka Island, Alaska, the United Statess Crosstie nuclear test series was a group of 48 nuclear tests conducted in 1967-1968. These tests followed the Operation Latchkey series and preceded the Operation Bowline series
16.
Operation Dominic
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Operation Dominic was a series of 31 nuclear test explosions with a 38.1 Mt total yield conducted in 1962 by the United States in the Pacific. This test series was scheduled quickly, in order to respond in kind to the Soviet resumption of testing after the tacit 1958–1961 test moratorium, most of these shots were conducted with free-fall bombs dropped from B-52 bomber aircraft. Twenty of these shots were to test new designs, six to test weapons effects. The Thor missile was used to lift warheads into near-space to conduct high-altitude nuclear explosion tests. Operation Dominic occurred during a period of high Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, since the Cuban Bay of Pigs Invasion had occurred not long before, president John F. Kennedy responded by authorizing Operation Dominic. The operation was undertaken by Joint Task Force 8, Operation Dominic at Carey Sublettes NuclearWeaponArchive. org More info on U. S. testing The short film Operation DOMINIC Nuclear Tests 1962 is available for free download at the Internet Archive
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Starfish Prime
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Starfish Prime was a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States on July 9,1962, a joint effort of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Defense Atomic Support Agency. A Thor rocket carrying a W49 thermonuclear warhead and a Mk.2 reentry vehicle was launched from Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean, the explosion took place at an altitude of 250 miles, above a point 19 miles southwest of Johnston Island. It was one of five conducted by the US in outer space as defined by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. It produced an equivalent to 1.4 megatonnes of TNT. It was the largest man-made nuclear explosion in outer space, in 1958 the United States had completed six high-altitude nuclear tests, but the high-altitude tests of that year produced many unexpected results and raised many new questions. Despite thorough studies of the data, present models of these bursts are sketchy. These models are too uncertain to permit extrapolation to other altitudes, thus there is a strong need, not only for better instrumentation, but for further tests covering a range of altitudes and yields. The Starfish test was planned as the second in the Fishbowl series. The initial Starfish launch attempt on June 20 was aborted in flight due to failure of the Thor launch vehicle, the Thor missile flew a normal trajectory for 59 seconds, then the rocket engine stopped, and the missile began to break apart. The range safety officer ordered the destruction of the missile and of the warhead, the missile was between 30,000 and 35,000 feet in altitude when it was destroyed. Parts of the missile and some radioactive contamination fell upon Johnston Island and nearby Sand Island, on July 9,1962, at 09,00,09 Coordinated Universal Time, the Starfish Prime test was successfully detonated at an altitude of 400 kilometres. The coordinates of the detonation were 16°28′N 169°38′W, the actual weapon yield came very close to the design yield, which various sources have set at different values in the range of 1.4 to 1.45 megatons. The nuclear warhead detonated 13 minutes and 41 seconds after liftoff of the Thor missile from Johnston Island, the EMP damage to the microwave link shut down telephone calls from Kauai to the other Hawaiian islands. A total of 27 small rockets were launched from Johnston Island to obtain data from the Starfish Prime detonation. In addition, a number of rocket-borne instruments were launched from a firing area at Barking Sands. A very large number of United States military ships and aircraft were operating in support of Starfish Prime in the Johnston Island area, a few military ships and aircraft were also positioned in the region of the South Pacific Ocean near the Samoan Islands. This location was at the end of the magnetic field line of the Earths magnetic field from the position of the nuclear detonation. After the Starfish Prime detonation, bright auroras were observed in the area as well as in the southern conjugate region on the other side of the equator from the detonation
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Operation Fishbowl
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Operation Dominic was a series of 31 nuclear test explosions with a 38.1 Mt total yield conducted in 1962 by the United States in the Pacific. This test series was scheduled quickly, in order to respond in kind to the Soviet resumption of testing after the tacit 1958–1961 test moratorium, most of these shots were conducted with free-fall bombs dropped from B-52 bomber aircraft. Twenty of these shots were to test new designs, six to test weapons effects. The Thor missile was used to lift warheads into near-space to conduct high-altitude nuclear explosion tests. Operation Dominic occurred during a period of high Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, since the Cuban Bay of Pigs Invasion had occurred not long before, president John F. Kennedy responded by authorizing Operation Dominic. The operation was undertaken by Joint Task Force 8, Operation Dominic at Carey Sublettes NuclearWeaponArchive. org More info on U. S. testing The short film Operation DOMINIC Nuclear Tests 1962 is available for free download at the Internet Archive
19.
Operation Greenhouse
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Operation Greenhouse was the fifth American nuclear test series, the second conducted in 1951 and the first to test principles that would lead to developing thermonuclear weapons. Conducted at the new Pacific Proving Ground, specifically on islands of the Enewetak Atoll, all of the devices were mounted in large steel towers and this series of nuclear weapons tests was preceded by Operation Ranger and succeeded by Operation Buster-Jangle. Operation Greenhouse showcased new and aggressive designs for nuclear weapons, the main idea was to reduce the size, weight, and most importantly, reduce the amount of fissile material necessary for nuclear weapons, while increasing the destructive power. With the Soviet Unions first nuclear test a year and half earlier, thus the success of Operation Greenhouse was vital before the development of thermonuclear weapons could continue. A number of buildings, including bunkers, houses and factories were built on Mujinkarikku Islet to test nuclear weapon effects. The George explosion was the worlds first thermonuclear burn, though it was just a test design, shaped like a torus, the George device had a small amount of heavy isotopes of liquid hydrogen placed at its center. The vast majority of its derived from fission. The energy output from the fusion in this test was insignificant in comparison. The George device was more like an atomic bomb than a thermonuclear one. The George design was a Classical Super prototype with a triggering device using radiation implosion upon a cylinder. The design of the system in this test was based on the one patented by Klaus Fuchs. Its success played a role in the History of the Teller–Ulam design. The George test validated the principles which would be used for the first full-scale thermonuclear bomb test, Ivy Mike, one later, on 1 November 1952. Conducted on May 25,1951, Item was the first test of a boosted fission weapon. In this test, deuterium-tritium gas was injected into the uranium core of a nuclear fission bomb. The extreme heat of the bomb produced thermonuclear fusion reactions within the D-T gas. While not enough to be considered a nuclear fusion bomb. This photograph takes up the portion of the cover of the 1995 documentary Trinity
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Operation Hardtack I
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Operation Hardtack I was a series of 35 nuclear tests conducted by the United States from April 28 to August 18 in 1958 at the Pacific Proving Grounds. At the time of testing, the Operation Hardtack I test series included more nuclear detonations than all prior nuclear explosions in the Pacific Ocean put together. These tests followed the Project 58/58A series, which occurred from 1957 December 6 to 1958, March 14, and preceded the Operation Argus series, Operation Hardtack I was directed by Joint Task Force 7. JTF-7 was a collaboration between the military and many civilians, but was structured like a military organization. Its 19,100 personnel were composed of members of the US military, Federal civilian employees, as well as affiliated with the Department of Defense. There were three main research directions, the first was the development of new types of nuclear weapons. This was undertaken by detonating experimental devices created by the AEC’s Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, the DOD performed experiments and tests on these detonations that did not hamper the AEC’s research. The second research direction was to examine how underwater explosions affected materiel, especially Navy ships, the tests were named Wahoo and Umbrella, the former was conducted in the open ocean whereas the latter in a lagoon. This research direction was composed of three tests and were the first high altitude tests. The individual tests in the series were Orange, Teak, Orange and Teak were known collectively as Operation Newsreel and were rocket boosted. Yucca, however, reached its altitude by being raised by balloons, many events and proceedings leading up to Operation Hardtack I, such as previous nuclear testing results and the global political atmosphere, influenced its creation and design. One such historical circumstance was that nuclear radiation concerns were mounting publicly, during the 1956 Presidential Election, ending nuclear testing was a campaign issue and nuclear safety was one part of that discussion. At the same time, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was publicly proposing a moratorium on testing, in 1956 during June, the National Academy of Sciences recommended new radiation exposure limits for the general public in a report entitled The Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation. The AEC, which was the body that developed nuclear weapons, some AEC members asserted that the limits were reached incorrectly and should be reviewed in the future. Additionally, Charles L. Dunham, the AEC Director of the Division of Biology, Dunham, in association with other AEC offices and officials, made recommendations to move further tests to the Pacific in order to eliminate the need to determine radiological fallout safety. Also in 1956, the AEC was designing a test series that included nuclear detonations which would release significant amounts of nuclear fallout, the series came to be known as Operation Plumbbob and took place in 1957 from April 24 to October 7. Operation Plumbbob was followed by Project 58/58A and Operation Hardtack I, at the time of testing, Operation Plumbbob was the most extensive nuclear test series held at the Nevada Test Site. President Eisenhower was very cautious in approving Plumbbob due to public concern, in 1957 on August 9 AEC chairman Lewis L. Strauss proposed to President Eisenhower a preliminary plan of Operation Hardtack I
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Operation Ivy
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Operation Ivy was the eighth series of American nuclear tests, coming after Tumbler-Snapper and before Upshot–Knothole. Its purpose was to upgrade the U. S. arsenal of nuclear weapons in response to the Soviet nuclear weapons program. The two explosions were staged in late 1952 at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Proving Ground in the Marshall Islands, the first Ivy shot, Mike, was the first successful full-scale test of a multi-megaton thermonuclear weapon using the Teller-Ulam design. Unlike later thermonuclear weapons, Mike used deuterium as its fuel, maintained as a liquid by an expensive. It was detonated on Elugelab Island yielding 10.4 megatons, eight megatons of the yield was from fast fission of the uranium tamper, creating massive amounts of radioactive fallout. The detonation left an underwater crater 6,240 ft wide and 164 ft deep where Elugelab Island had been, following this successful test, the Mike design was weaponized as the EC-16, but it was quickly abandoned for solid-fueled designs after the success of the Castle Bravo shot. By the time they were successful in finding the signal they were low on fuel. While Hagan was able to glide to the runway and achieve a landing, Robinson was instead too far out to follow the same path and therefore attempted to land on water. Approximately a year after his disappearance, Robinson was awarded a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross for his service, neither his plane nor his body has ever been found, in 2002 a memorial stone at Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery was erected. The second test, King, fired the largest nuclear weapon to date using only nuclear fission and this Super Oralloy Bomb was intended as a backup if the fusion weapon failed. King yielded 500 kilotons,25 times more powerful than the Fat Man weapon
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Little Feller (nuclear tests)
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Little Feller II and Little Feller I were code names for a set of nuclear tests undertaken by the United States at the Nevada Test Site on July 7 and July 17,1962 as part of Operation Sunbeam. They were both tests of stockpiled W54 warheads, the smallest nuclear warheads ever produced by the United States, in Little Feller II, the warhead was suspended only three feet above the ground and had a yield equivalent to only 22 tons of TNT. Little Feller I has the distinction of being the last near-ground atmospheric nuclear detonation conducted by the United States of America. All further tests were conducted under ground, in accordance with the Partial Test Ban Treaty, an additional footnote is Operation Roller Coaster. The Davy Crockett from the Brookings Institution Video of the M-388 Davy Crockett Nuclear Test Operation Ivy Flats government film
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Operation Plumbbob
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Operation Plumbbob was a series of nuclear tests conducted between May 28 and October 7,1957, at the Nevada Test Site, following Project 57, and preceding Project 58/58A. It was the biggest, longest, and most controversial test series in the continental United States, the operation consisted of 29 explosions, of which only two did not produce any nuclear yield. Twenty-one laboratories and government agencies were involved and they included forty-three military effects tests on civil and military structures, radiation and bio-medical studies, and aircraft structural tests. Operation Plumbbob had the tallest tower tests to date in the U. S. nuclear testing program as well as high-altitude balloon tests, one nuclear test involved the largest troop maneuver ever associated with U. S. nuclear testing. Approximately 18,000 members of the U. S. Air Force, Army, Navy, the military was interested in knowing how the average foot-soldier would stand up, physically and psychologically, to the rigors of the tactical nuclear battlefield. Almost 1,200 pigs were subjected to experiments and blast-effects studies during Operation Plumbbob. On shot Priscilla,719 pigs were used in experiments on Frenchman Flat. Some pigs were placed in elevated cages and provided with suits made of different materials, as shown and reported in the PBS documentary Dark Circle, the pigs survived, but with third-degree burns to 80% of their bodies. Other pigs were placed in pens behind large sheets of glass at measured distances from the hypocenter to test the effects of flying debris on living targets, nuclear weapons safety experiments were conducted to study the possibility of a nuclear weapon detonation during an accident. On July 26,1957, a safety experiment, Pascal-A, was detonated in a hole at NTS. The knowledge gained here would provide data to prevent nuclear yields in case of accidental detonations–for example, the John shot on July 19,1957 was the only test of the Air Forces AIR-2 Genie missile with a nuclear warhead. It was fired from an F-89 Scorpion fighter over Yucca Flats at the NNSS, in 2012 the photographer and the last survivor of the five met in a restaurant in Dallas to reminisce. The five officers were, Colonel Sidney C, bruce, later professor of Electrical Engineering at Colorado University, died in 2005, Lieutenant Colonel Frank P. Ball, died in 2003, Major John w. Hughes II, died in 1990, Major Norman B. Bodinger, died February 2,1997, Major Donald A. Luttrell, the photographer, Akira George Yoshitake, died in October 2013. The Rainier shot, conducted September 19,1957, was the first fully contained underground nuclear test and this test of 1.7 kt could be detected around the world by seismologists using ordinary seismic instruments. The Rainier test became the prototype for larger and more powerful underground tests, some images from Upshot-Knothole Grable were accidentally relabeled as belonging to the Priscilla shot from Operation Plumbbob in 1957. As a consequence many publications including official government documents have the photo mislabeled, Plumbbob released 58,300 kilocuries of radioiodine into the atmosphere. This produced total civilian radiation exposures amounting to 120 million person-rads of thyroid tissue exposure
