Operation Greenhouse

Nuclear weapons test Operation Greenhouse
Greenhouse George
information
nation	United States
Test location	Eniwetok Atoll
Period	April – May 1951
Number of tests	4th
Test type	Above-ground tests
Weapon type	Fission / Fusion
Max. Explosive power	225 kT
navigation
Previous test	Operation Ranger
Next test	Operation Buster-Jangle

Operation Greenhouse was the fifth series of American nuclear weapons tests and the second in 1951. It took place on the Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific and consisted of four individual tests.

The individual tests of the Greenhouse series

bomb	Date / Time ( GMT )	place	Explosion height	Test type	Explosive force (predicted)	Remarks
Dog	April 7, 1951 6:34 p.m.	Runit Island	91.4 meters (300 feet)	tower	81 kT	Greenhouse Dog was the stress test for the Mark 6 bomb. The test hurled 250,000 tons of contaminated coral material over ten kilometers into the air.
Easy	April 20, 1951 6:26 p.m.	Enjebi Island	91.4 meters (300 feet)	tower	47 kT	Test of the TX-5D bomb, an improved , lighter weight implosion bomb .
George	May 8, 1951 9:30 p.m.	Eberiru Island	61.5 meters (200 feet)	tower	225 kT	Greenhouse George was the first test to develop a hydrogen bomb . The arrangement - an experimental apparatus, not yet a bomb - consisted of a cylindrical nuclear fission explosive device, in the middle of which was a capsule made of beryllium oxide with a mixture of frozen deuterium and tritium . The nuclear fusion was triggered by the X-ray radiation of the nuclear fission explosion, which led to an ionization of the beryllium oxide and subsequent compression of the deuterium-tritium mixture. This was the first thermonuclear fusion process ever to occur on Earth . The energy released by the fusion reaction was insignificant, the stated explosive power was that of the fission explosive device.
Item	May 24, 1951 6:17 p.m.	Enjebi Island	61.5 meters (200 feet)	tower	45.5 kT	Greenhouse Item was the US's first hybrid atomic bomb . It drew the majority of its explosion energy from a nuclear fission, but had a gas filling of deuterium and tritium in the core for reinforcement. The explosive force was increased to more than twice as high a value of 45.5 kT. With later weapons, the explosive force could be "adjusted" by the amount of gas added.

A mechanism for a hydrogen bomb originally proposed by John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs and patented in 1946 was tested in Greenhouse (ionization compression). He demonstrated that this was not a viable option for a hydrogen bomb. The fusion in the deuterium-tritium was ignited, but not sustained afterwards because the heat energy was radiated too quickly. The design turned out to be a failure.

Web links

Commons : Operation Greenhouse  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The US greenhouse tests at nuclearweaponarchive.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nuclear Test Personnel Review (NTPR) Program, DNA 6034F ( Memento from January 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ US Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office: United States Nuclear Tests, July 1945 through September 1992 , DOE / NV - 209-REV 15, December 2000, (PDF, 877 kB) ( Memento from October 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Robert Standish Norris, Thomas B. Cochran: United States nuclear tests, July 1945 to 31 December 1992 (NWD 94-1) , Nuclear Weapons Databook Working Paper, Washington, DC: Natural Resources Defense Council, February 1, 1994, (PDF , 4.26 MB) ( Memento from October 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ Gallery of US Nuclear Tests ( Memento from August 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) at nuclearweaponarchive.org
5. ↑ Kenneth W. Ford: Building the H Bomb - A Personal History. Singapore: World Scientific 2015, ISBN 978-9814632072 , pages 115 and 147
6. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Light: 100 Suns , 2003
7. ↑ Jeremy Bernstein , John von Neumann and Klaus Fuchs: an Unlikely Collaboration, Physics Perspective, Volume 12, 2010, pp. 36-50