A 22 April
29
message from Starbird to
Bradbury, Teller, and Hertford notes tnat
be
France has available to them on a regular basis the unclassified weapon test
reports end abstracts on subjects in Nuclear Science.
have any additional unclassified information
J
He asks the Labs if they
related to the subject of underground
testing which could be made available to France.
He doesn’t wish the Labs to
undertake a taak of extracting information and making specific preparations but just
to inform them of what might be easily available.
The ne €dorrespofidence off
interest
jf this
f
had resumed add décimgnts early discyss oAs
f
/f
//
/
folder
ith the
/
iong on /a study for’ addivional/possj}ble
/
i
‘
a7 tajor
concém j
d
!
/ rvey
junderwoy|¥o idéntify
tnistis less of A problem
the unde
those placed
enanm
atthe
NIS.
Two messages from Starbird to the Labs dated 21and22April1960present
various assumptions for the internationally monitored underground nuclear tests
for seismic research.
Starbird asks the Labs to consider the question of how
the devices might best be stockpiled, which particular devices might be selected,
considerations of yield determination, method of implacement, etc. and
asks the
Labs to work together to come up with answers to some of the alternatives.
messages are documented in the notes entitled Test Moritorium, file #3R.
These
In
response to some of the questions, Harold Brown of Livermore wrote to Jane Hall
of LASL on 25 April giving tke Livermore position on certain DMAsuggestions and
questions as follows:
as suggested, will
Livermore agrees that the proposed stockpile et Medina,
be satisfactory; Livermore will accept LASL's judgment on the
accuracy of predicting yields of the MARK
VII; Livermore feels that the use of
the MARK VII system is much preferable to the MARK VI from an operational viewpoint because of the much smaller diameter; the Livermore designfor a container
is discussed as having been tested for pressures up to three nundred PSI, which
may require redesign for holes deeper than three hundred feet.
will probably allow procurement within three months.
Sucn redesign