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- Bomb detonation occurred 9, 1945
- Operation Crossroads was the first nuclear test since Operation Trinity in July of 1945.
- First nuclear device detonation since Nagasaki.
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- Proposed by Lewis Strauss, future chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission
- Designed to demonstrate the vulberability, rather than survivability of ships
- Largely for public opinion to prove that the fleet was not obsolete in the face of this new weapon
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Location Stipulations:
- Site must be controlled by US
- Inhabitants would have to be evacuated (preferably uninhabited)
- Must be at least 300 miles from the nearest city
- Airbase had to be within 1,000 miles for B-29 bomber
- Protected anchorage of at least 6 miles for target ships
Ideally predictable weather patterns (free of severe cold/violent storms) wind and ocean patterns to avoid blow back to personnel and protect shipping lanes. -
- Since the US Navy contributed most men and material, test should be headed by a naval officer.
- Commodore William Parsons was originally considered for involvement in the Manhattan project
- Parsons was now Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Special Weapons. He recommended Blandy.
- Since the US Navy contributed most men and material, test should be headed by a naval officer.
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- Truman declares "US to be sole trustee of all the pacific islands captured from Japan during war
- Of the pacific islands, Marshall Islands were included with intention of conducting nuclear tests
- US government studying site since October 1945
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- Two detonation test scheduled for 1946: Able and Baker with underwater Charlie scheduled for 1947
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- Survey Ship Sumner began blasting channels through Bikini reef into lagoon, residents had no idea why.
- 167 Bikini islanders were relocated
- Biblical stories were used comparing them to "children of Israel whom the Lord saved and led to promised land."
- In 1960 natives returned only to be told a decade later that returnees had a 75% increase in levels of Cesium-137.
- 80-100 US surplus ships, and approx. 60 Japan and German captured ships used as targets
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- Same as Little boy & Fat Man (Nagasaki), Able was an air burst to avoid surface materials from being drawn into fireball
- Intense burst of fireball radiation lasting a few seconds, closest ships to blast received neutron and gamma radiation lethal to anyone onboard
- One sailor on a support ship took a souvenir only to be told that he'd be "sleeping in a shower of gamma rays"
- 57 guinea pigs, 109 mice, 146 pigs, 176 goats, 3,030 white rats placed on 22 target ships. 10% killed in blast
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- Delivery via free fall air drop 518 ft by Mk III Gilda device with a yield of 23 kt (kilotons)
- Remote auto piloted B-17 were outfitted with cameras, radiation detectors, and air sample collectors allowing the drones to fly into Able's mushroom cloud.
- 114 press observed explosion (first time a test was announced before hand and press allowed to attend) some expressed disappointment in the less-than-expected damage
- Bomb missed aim point by 710 yards, reason never found.
- Target USS Nevada
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- Baker detonated 90 feet underwater
- Target ship LSM-60 vaporized by nuclear fireball, 10 ships sunk including German Heavy cruiser
- Greatest difference between two tests were radioactive contamination of all target ships by Baker due to water pressure vs air pressure.
- Only 9 surviving Baker target ships were eventually decontaminated and sold for scrap.
- Baker was the first nuclear explosion close enough to the surface to keep radioactive fission products in the local environment.
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- Baker produced so many unusual phenomena that a conference was held two months later to standardize new terms for descriptive analysis.
- Baker produced 3lbs of fission products, thoroughly mixed with two million tons of spray and seabed sand in its cauliflower head and then dumped back into the lagoon.
- Onboard instruments allowed remote-controlled radiation measurements, drone boats detected radiation hotspots
- Personnel radiation exposure similar to Manhattan project 0.1 roentgens per day
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- 3rd test (Charlie) was cancelled due to lack of resources and focus on creating smaller, lighter atomic weapon
- 23,500 lb device (shrimp) produced 15-megaton blast (3x bigger than planned) -Vaporized 3 islands, tore mile-wide crater in bottom of lagoon
- bomb blast hurled debris into air equivalent of 216 empire state buildings
- radioactive bomb debris contaminated 23 Japanese fishing crew members 80 miles away.
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- Sponge Bob & Godzilla
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- Footage declassified in 2016 and available for public viewing Test Footage