Operation Upshot Knothole
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Nuclear test Operation Upshot Knothole
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 Grable mushroom cloud , with a gun in the foreground |
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| information | |
| nation |
 United States
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| Test location | Nevada National Security Site |
| Period | March – June 1953 |
| Number of tests | 11 |
| Test type | Above-ground tests |
| Weapon type | fission |
| Max. Explosive force | 61 kT |
| navigation | |
| Previous test | Operation ivy |
| Next test | Operation Castle |
The Operation Upshot-Knothole was the ninth American Nuclear Test series . It took place on the Nevada Test Site in 1953 . A total of eleven bombs were tested, seven of which were detonated on towers, three were dropped from aircraft and a nuclear artillery shell ( W9 ) was tested in one test .
The individual tests of the Upshot Knothole operation
| bomb | Date / Time ( GMT ) |
Proving Ground | Explosion height | Test type | Explosive force (predicted) | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annie | March 17, 1953 1:20 p.m. |
Area 3 | 91 meters (300 feet) |
tower | 16 kT (15-20 kT) |
To allay public fears, Annie was conducted as an "open test," which means that reporters were allowed to watch the test on March 17 from a distance of seven miles.
During the test, the impact of a nuclear explosion on civilian buildings and vehicles was tested as part of Operation Doorstep . |
| Nancy | March 24, 1953 1:10 p.m. |
Area 4 | 91 meters (300 feet) |
tower | 24 kT (35-40 kT) |
Nancy killed 4,390 sheep near Cedar City , Utah |
| Ruth | March 31, 1953 1:00 p.m. |
Area 7 | 91 meters (300 feet) |
tower | 0.2 kT (1.5-3 kT) |
Moderated mission bomb from UH 3 ; the explosive force was estimated at 1.5 to 3 kT, but only 0.2 kT was reached, which meant that not even the bomb tower on which it was mounted was destroyed. |
| Dixie | April 6, 1953 3:30 p.m. |
Area 7 | 1835 meters (6022 feet) |
Dropped from a Boeing B-50 | 11 kT (8–12 kT) |
Prototype of the Mk-5D bomb |
| Ray | April 11, 1953 12:45 p.m. |
Area 4 | 30 meters (100 feet) |
tower | 0.2 kT (0.5–1 kT) |
As with Ruth, it was a moderated mission bomb. In contrast to this, Ray had a higher proportion of deuterium. |
| Badger | April 18, 1953 12:35 p.m. |
Area 2 | 91 meters (300 feet) |
tower | 23 kT (35-40 kT) |
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| Simon | April 25, 1953 12:30 p.m. |
Area 1 | 91 meters (300 feet) |
tower | 43 kT (35-40 kT) |
Test of the first ignition stage of a fusion bomb. Simon was the largest nuclear test on the continental proving ground in the United States to date. Radioactive fallout fell over the test site, Highways 91 and 93, and the city of St. George , Utah. The fallout over the highways was so severe that it was closed for the first time in the history of the Nevada Test Site. |
| Encore | May 8, 1953 3:30 p.m. |
Area 5 | 738 meters (2423 feet) |
Dropped from a B-50 bomber | 27 kT (30–35 kT) |
Due to a technical error, the bomb was dropped 250 meters from the target marker. |
| Harry | May 19, 1953 12:05 p.m. |
Area 3 | 91 meters (300 feet) |
tower | 32 kT (37 kT) |
Harry was a test for a bomb developed by Ted Taylor . Despite the low explosive power, Harry was the most effective nuclear fission explosion. The explosion resulted in the worst radioactive fallout from an atomic bomb test on the American continent; hence the nickname Dirty Harry comes from . The radioactive particles rose to a height of 11.6 km and fell east in the area of the city of St. George, 160 kilometers away. The filming of the film The Conqueror took place in the area of radioactive fallout.
1000 soldiers watch the explosion as part of the Desert Rock V military exercise. |
| Grave | May 25, 1953 3:30 p.m. |
Area 5 | 159 meters (524 feet) |
280 mm artillery shell | 15 kT (14 kT) |
Upshot-Knothole Grable was the first test of a nuclear artillery shell. The W9 shell exploded 19 seconds after it was shot down at a distance of 10 kilometers. The projectile was the second gun-design atomic bomb to be detonated after Little Boy , and thus the first test of this type. 3,388 soldiers took part in maneuvers during and after the detonation as part of the Desert Rock V military exercise. |
| Climax | June 4, 1953 11:15 a.m. |
Area 7 | 406 meters (1334 feet) |
Dropped from a Convair B-36 bomber | 61 kT (50–70 kT) |
Climax was the stress test for the Mark-7 bomb. The test was originally planned for Operation Castle in the Pacific, but on May 5, 1953, permission was sought from the director of Los Alamos National Laboratory to conduct the test as part of Operation Upshot-Knothole. Climax was the largest nuclear test to date on the test site in Nevada. |
gallery
Film recording of the test with nuclear artillery
Web links
Commons : Operation Upshot-Knothole - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Operation Doorstep - album with pictures, videos and audio files
- The US Upshot Knothole Tests on nuclearweaponarchive.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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 )
- ^ 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 )
- ^ Gallery of US Nuclear Tests ( memento August 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) at nuclearweaponarchive.org
- ↑ a b Michael Light: 100 Suns , 2003
- ^ "Operation Upshot-Knothole." ( Memento of May 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Department of Energy, 1953.