Summary of External Doses for Operation UPSHOT-KNOTHOLE as of 1 May 1986
Gamma Dose (rem)

0-0.5

0.5-1

1-3

Army

3,705

3,041

4,459

1,299

20

Navy

402

171

96

87

16

1,125

226

260

45

17

112

205

330

11,611

16

98

28

28

2

0

Air Force

Marine Corps
Civilian DOD
Participants

4.10

3-5

5-10

10+
10

0

OPERATION CASTLE.
CASTLE was conducted at Enewetak and Bikini Atolls during the spring of

1954.

The first event of this series, Shot BRAVO, had a yield of 15 megatons

and was the largest device ever detonated by the U.S. Government as part of
atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.

The following table provides specifics

on this detonation, shown in figure 13 (F), as well as the other five in the
series (13: 1):

Event

BRAVO

1 March

ROMEO

27 March

KOON

7 April

UNION

4.10.1

Date

Type

Surface

15 megatons

Barge

11 megatons

Surface

26 April

Yield

110 kilotons

Barge

6.9 megatons
13.5 megatons

YANKEE

5 May

Barge

NECTAR

14 May

Barge

1.69 megatons

Background and Objectives of Operation CASTLE.

CASTLE was the culmination in the development of the super, or hydrogen,
bomb that began in 1950.

Shot GEORGE, a test in the 1951 GREENHOUSE series,

had demonstrated the initiation of a sustained thermonuclear reaction by use
of a fission reaction.

Fusion, or thermonuclear, reactions had been used in

103

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