Detonations on towers may be considered as low airbursts or ground
bursts, depending upon the relative height of the detonation and its yield.
A larger burst will create more fallout than a smaller burst on an equal
height tower not only because of the additional fission products and weapon
debris, but also because it will pull up more Earth materials, or even form
a crater.

In addition, the materials of the tower itself provide a source

of easily activated materials.

The particles of the tower material may

also act as centers for the debris vapors to condense on to form the larger
particles that lead to heavier early fallout.

Devices that fission uranium

or plutonium inefficiently will cause more of these radioactive components

of the device residue to be dispersed.
EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM
Central to the test series was the experimental program.

This program

and its requirements dictated the form of the test organization and the
detail of personnel participation.

Like most of the preceding nuclear test

series, CASTLE's experimental program incorporated two aspects, the most
important of which was the development of the weapons themselves; the secondary experiments involved the measurement of the explosive and radiation
effects.
These two aspects can serve as a rough measure of differentiation of
interest between the major participants:

the AEC interest in weapon de-

velopment, and the DOD interest in the military application of the effects
of the explosions.

The several parts of the weapon development and the

effects studies each had particular features that led to the possibility

of radiation exposure.

Weapon Development
In testing devices, weapon designers are interested in two classes of

measurements:

the total energy release, or equivalent explosive yield, of

the device, and the rate of release.

The total energy release measure-

ments are called yield measurements, and the rate of release measurements
are called diagnostic measurements.

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