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