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WEAPONS
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EXTRANEOUS REATERIAL BELTED
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FULL-SCALE WEAPON TESTS
Operations Upshot and Knothole (Nevada, March to June 1953)
This series of full-scale weapon tests included 11 devices, two of which (Operation Knothole)
were for the purposes of the DOD and the balance (Operation Upshot) for the Commission. As indicated in Table 1, the first shot of the Knothole series, on May 8, was for weapon-effects purposes;
the second, on May 25, was an operational test of the artillery projectile fired from the 280-mm
cannon,
The series of nine shots for the Commission was conducted primarily to further thermonuclear
development and to provide experimental data on hollow implosion, external initiators, initiation
with deuterium, and boosting with deuterium. (See Table 1.)
Tests.
As an extensive testseries, OperationDomino, originallyscheduledfor the fall of 1953 in
Nevada, has heen cancelled. This
was
madepossiblein
largepartbytheadditionan eleventh
shot at the end ofthe
10-shot series thig_ spring. Full-scale fission- and thermonuclear-weapon
ienieas wr
scheduled.to‘begin
earlyin1954 {Operation Castle ) at”Eniwetok. The schedule of
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