Test Division-Livermore
The Test Division performed diagnostic measurements of
exper-
imental nuclear devices leading to the design of more efficient.
nuclear weapons.
Using nuclear emulsions and threshold detectors, the Division measured neutron yields and spectra.
Using
optical and electronic transmission and recording methods, Test
Division measured the variations in time of prompt radiations.
For Operation Plumbbob in 1958,
a high-quality optical trans-
mission system was developed to replace the use of large coaxial
cable.
This optical system conveyed the light signals produced
in plastic scintillators by various nuclear radiations from the
shot tower to photoelectric detectors to recording oscilloscopes
placed in the electronics bunkers.
Light signals were recorded
by means of fast photographic techniques. The Test group made
observations of surfaces made extremely hot by nuclear detonations and of the "Teller Effect," or glow produced by gamma
radiations with the
air.
The Test
Division also
recorded light
Signals by using streak cameras capable of resolving time differ-
ences and
framing cameras capable of making photographic
at a rate of 3 million per second.
records
Time-dependent nuclear radia-
tion events were measured by converting prompt radiation signals
into electrical signals displayed and photographed on oscillo-
scopes.
In Operation Hardtack I, Test Division utilized computers at
the test site to generate accurate field-data reduction.
Detection was advanced by use of Cerenkov radiators as the detection
medium which recorded gamma signals in the presence of high neutron background.
To provide necessary shielding from both gamma
rays and neutrons a composite shielding material consisting of
homogeneous mixture of lead and paraffin was created.
Photograph
emulsions were used to measure neutron yield and spectra and to
determine energy distance by measuring recoil protons. The neutron energy threshold was measured by activation in threshold
detectors.
Several days after exposure, the induced radioactivity was determined by counting and autoradiography. In Hardtack
I at PPG, experimenters placed the threshold detectors under
water near the nuclear explosion.
In the Plumbbob series,
they
developed a system for making threshold neutron measurement by
time~of-flight technique and electron recording.
Working within the recommendations of the President’s Panel
on Seismic Impression, the Test Division planned and operated
test projects at both the NTS and Winnfield, Louisiana.
Project
Lollopop at NTS was a plan to detonate a nuclear device after the
moratorium at a proper depth and location with seismic recording
instruments.
The Winnfield test, named Project Cowboy, used conventional explosions in a salt dome.
Plowshare Program projects
of the Test Division included Chariot, a nuclear detonation
within a salt bed in southeast New Mexico; Vintage, designed to
extract oil from shale by nuclear explosion; and Project Oil
Subway and Oxcart were designed
Sands to extract oil in Canada.
for study of previous bomb craters.