The 1950 program, listing 16 categories of research and 22 categories of specific
weapons projects, also reflected the President's decision that development of a thermonuclear weapon would be pushed. The LASL plan for 1950 noted:

"The program proposed ... appears to LASL to be almost the maximum

possible effort in the direction of understanding and attaining thermonuclear reactions and, at the same time, to maintain progress in... fission weapons sufficient to play a real role in the short-range position in this country .... It

must also be clear that the general nature and philosophy of the thermonuclear
program will differ from those heretofore employed by Los Alamosin its study
of fission weapons. Because of experimental and theoretical necessity, and in
an attempt to gamble on the chance of maximum progress, tests at Eniwetok

involving the expenditure of sizable amounts of fissionable material will take

the place of part of the heretofore extensive model testing and detailed theoretical calculation. The more empirical approach can, with great good luck, ma-

terially shorten a development period; on the other hand, the chance of failure

in such tests will be appreciably higher than that under the old philosophy."

In March 1950, LASL initiated an accelerated program under which most of LASL per-

sonnel worked a six-day week through 1951.

By Spring 1951, LASL had perfected an experiment to determine if a fission bomb
would generate enoughheat to initiate a thermonuclear reaction in liquefied materials. A
Greenhouse series test demonstrated the validity of this approach.
Almost immediately following Greenhouse, LASL began development of an experimental device for a large scale thermonuclear detonation or reaction. Perfection of this
device required extensive engineering assistance on the device itself by American Car &
Foundry Company, and extensive cryogenics assistance by three groups. National Bureau

of Standards, in the AEC-built Cryogenics Engineering Laboratory at Boulder, provided

engineering research aud produced materials required; Cambridge Corporation developed
and provided means of transporting the liquids; and Herrick Johnston engineered and built

a liquefaction plant on Parry Island.
Operation Ivy.

The device was tested in the Fallof 1952, during

On the basis of Ivy results and other basic design determinations, shortly after the

test there was initiated a comprehensive program for development of

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ever
In addition to the three weapons for early test and military use, LASL was developing
in mid-1953 other experimental devices to prove new concepts of design. (Other developmental work was also underway after June 1952,. in the new Livermore Laboratory. )

Stockpile Operations and Problems

ALGO

One of the primary objectives of all SFO operations is the stockpiling of atomic weapons in accord with broad directive schedules and military requirements as these are formulated and issued from time to time by higher authority.

ine

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