224
OTHER MAJOR ACTIVITIES
fiscal year 1963, the Plowshare program began to sponsor separately
and to fund for device tests being conducted at the Nevada Test Site
specifically for its needs.
Considerable success continues to be achieved in developing nuclear
explosives which obtain less and less of their energy from fission; that
is, less and less radioactivity is produced which needs to be controlled
either through design of the experiment, such as by deeper burial, or
through operational measures, such as the use of exclusion areas and
awaiting proper meteorological conditions. In addition to reduction
in amountof fission energy in explosives, studies are also underway to
develop design and emplacement techniques which may further reduce
the amount of the radioactivity which escapes from the crater. It
now appears possible to reduce the radioactivity released from a crater
to the point where the area to be controlled should not exceed the area
which would have to be controlled for other safety reasons, such as
blast effects.
Design of an explosive with an adequate neutron flux for the production of heavy elements hasstill not achieved its objective. However, increased understanding of device performance was achieved dur-
ing the year which provides some confidence that a successful device ,
can be developed to produce heavy elements.
Progress in both types of nuclear explosive development has lad
a major influence on the rate and kind of experiments that can be,
carried out.
Oruer RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Certain research and development activities in the Plowshare program apply equally to cratering or contained explosions. These are
safety research and studies of fields of applications in which both
cratering and containedexplosions may be used.
Safety Research
The Plowshare program benefits from other Commission research
and developmentactivities. For example, a part of the research conducted in the Biology and Medicine program makes a major contribution to the safe use of nuclear explosives, A new program whichts
expected to be especially valuable to cratering explosion safety !s
the Fallout Studies Program recently established at LRL. See also
pages 252-253 of the AEC Annual Report to Congress for 1965.
In addition, the Plowshare program supports certain safety related research, which might be termed “applied research”, and con-