Hotes on Mtg, 25 Aug '51
Lines of instrumentationa would be somewhat restricted in
direction in the beached-ship type of operation. With collimation, also,
the ship would have to be beached quite early to cet the collimation set,
and would have to be anchored very thoroughly. Again, the location might
be reatricted by the requirement of a guitable vbeach. There is also the
fact that if a tower shot is desired (some height being perhaps desirable
to avoid gamma-ray scattering, etc.), it would be easter to have it on
land -— a tower on a ship is possible, up to perhape 90 ft in height, but
would mean essentially rebuilding the ship.
It would appear, therefore, that a land shot presents apprecia-
bly more flexibility, advantages and ease of operation than the beached
ship.
Ve
FURTHER DISCUSSION OF TIME SCALES
During the discussion of experiments and types of operation, Teller
reiterated that he did not wish to see a large measurements program interfere with the test's being done as soon and as expeditiously as possible.
As noted above, the actual weapon assembly is a susll part of the task,
particularly since it appears that a large amount of welding will not be
necessary. It was explained further that the operational work, the building of power plants, facilities, shelters, etc., is a large portion of
the job. Asked how one might speed up the operation, Graves replied that
if all one wanted to do was to detonate the bomb, listen to it and say
whether it was a large or small bang, this could be done very easily; but
if experiments ere added, if a yield measurement by radiochemical methods
is desired, for example, this slows it downs if alpha or double alpha is
desired, it is slowed down a little mre. If one seta a time scale this
prescribes the experiments; if a certain set of experiments are asked,
this fixes the time scale.
As for the experiments listed in Section TI, the following is
Ogle's rough estimate as to when they could be ready:
TABIZ 4
Experiment
Time Required
.
for Development
Gemmas as f(t)
Internal threshold detectors
12 months
6 months <— | | Kus
External threshold detectors
and Phonex
9 months
Photography
0
a
Ball of fire
be. High Resolution
¢e
a
Bhangmeter
6 months
0
High-resolution Spectroscopy
6 months
Effects
G months
-18-
"