CASTLE SERIES FACT SHEET ORAFT
CASTLE was a nuclear weapons test series held at the Atomic Energy
Commission's (AEC) Pacific Proving Ground (PPG) in Spring 1954.
The PPG
consisted of Enewetak and Bikini atolls in the northwestern Marshal]
Islands in the Central Pacific Ocean.
There were six detonations
in the
series and they are listed in the following table:
Date
Magnitude
Assigned
Name
(equivatent
Location
tons TNT)
1 March
BRAVO
Bikini; sandspit off Nam Island
15
(MT)
27 March
ROMEO
Bikini; barge in BRAVO crater
11
(MT)
-7 April
KOON
Bikini; surface of Eneman Island
110
(KT)
26 April
UNION
Bikini; barge in lagoon off I[roij
5 May
YANKEE
Bikini; barge in UNION crater
14 May
NECTAR
Enewetak; barge in MIKE? crater
6.9
(MT)
13.5
(MT)
1.69 (MT)
410.4 MT detonation in 1952.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The CASTLE series was held for the purpose of testing Jarge-yield
thermonuclear weapons.
President Truman ordered this development in 1950
r
and the work had progressed through the GEORGE experimental shot on
GREENHOUSE (1951) and the MIKE shot of IVY (1952).
MIKE was the first