Testing and -Fallout After the Mike shot of November 1952, the major problem facing the Commission and its scientists was the development of a deliverable thermonuclear weapon. The Upshot-Knothole series of the spring of 1953 included an open shot for reporters and civil defense officials, military effects shots, and troop manuvers (the Army was now camletely responsible for the radiological safety of its soldiers). The drive for a deliverable thermonuclear weapon, however, dominated the series. To accommodate Los Alamos' need for crucial experiments and precise data, the test group decided to permit camparatively larger explosions than were usually fired at Nevada. The group decided to fire shots from 300-foot towers. The test group, which anticipated fallout beyond the test confident site, was that its would protect local commities.7° radiological safety procedures | The Commission had learned that fallout from one of the Ranger shots had come down in measurable amounts in a radioactive snowstormin Rochester, New York in 1951. Since then the Cammission had worked hard to improve fallout prediction by installing an expanded radiation moni-~ toring network around the test site. The system seemed to work weil enough for the first six Upshot-Knothole shots, inhabited areas to small or negligible amounts. limiting fallout in But fallout from che seventh shot, called Simon, drifted across local highways and forced the Commission to set up road blocks and to wash down cars contaminated with the fallout. The ninth shot, Harry, sent a fallout cloud over loca. hichways and toward St. George, Utah. The Commission had to wasn cars again and had to ask St. George residents to take cover until the cicus had passed. The incicents caused local concern and resulted in tw =zLs