Operation Plumbbob facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Operation Plumbbob |
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Plumbbob Priscilla
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| Information | |
| Country | United States |
| Test site |
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| Period | 1957 |
| Number of tests | 29 |
| Test type | balloon, dry surface, high alt rocket (30–80 km), tower, underground shaft, tunnel |
| Max. yield | 74 kilotonnes of TNT (310 TJ) |
| Navigation | |
| Previous test series | Project 57 |
| Next test series | Project 58/58A |
Operation Plumbbob was a series of nuclear tests carried out by the United States. These tests happened between May 28 and October 7, 1957. They took place at the Nevada Test Site. This operation came after Project 57 and before Project 58/58A.
Contents
Understanding Operation Plumbbob
Operation Plumbbob included 29 explosions. Only two of these did not produce any nuclear yield. Many different groups, including 21 laboratories and government agencies, were involved.
Why These Tests Were Done
Most of the tests in Operation Plumbbob helped develop warheads for long-range missiles and medium-range missiles. They also tested smaller warheads for air defense and anti-submarine weapons.
The operation also included 43 military tests. These looked at how civil and military buildings were affected by the blasts. Scientists also studied radiation and how it affected living things. They even tested how aircraft structures held up.
Operation Plumbbob had the tallest tower tests ever in the U.S. nuclear testing program. It also featured tests using high-altitude balloons. One nuclear test involved the largest group of soldiers ever used in a U.S. nuclear test.
Soldiers and Animals in the Tests
About 18,000 members of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marines took part. They were part of exercises called Desert Rock VII and VIII. The military wanted to learn how soldiers would react, both physically and mentally, to a nuclear battlefield.
Almost 1,200 pigs were used in special experiments during Operation Plumbbob. For example, during the Priscilla test (which had a 37 kiloton yield), 719 pigs were used. Some pigs were placed in raised cages and wore suits made of different materials. This was to see which materials best protected them from the heat radiation. The pigs survived, but many had severe burns. Other pigs were placed behind large glass sheets at different distances from the hypocenter (the point directly below the explosion). This helped test how flying debris affected living targets.
Scientists also studied radioactive contamination and fallout. They even simulated an accidental weapon detonation. Projects also looked at how the ground moved, how blasts affected things, and how many neutrons were released.
Safety Experiments
Safety experiments were done to study if a nuclear weapon could accidentally explode. On July 26, 1957, a safety test called Pascal-A was set off underground. This was the first underground nuclear test in a shaft. The information from this test helped prevent nuclear explosions in case of accidents, like a plane crash.
Key Tests in Operation Plumbbob
The John Shot
The John shot on July 19, 1957, was special. It was the only test of the Air Force's AIR-2 Genie missile with a real nuclear warhead. An F-89J Scorpion fighter plane launched it over Yucca Flats. The explosion happened high in the air, between 18,500 and 20,000 feet (5,639 and 6,096 meters) up.
To show that the weapon could be used over cities without harm, five Air Force officers and a videographer stood directly under the blast. They were at ground zero during the explosion, flash, and blast.
The Rainier Shot
The Rainier shot happened on September 19, 1957. It was the first fully contained underground nuclear test. This means no radioactive materials escaped into the air. This 1.7 kiloton test was so powerful that seismologists (scientists who study earthquakes) around the world could detect it using regular instruments. The Rainier test became a model for bigger and stronger underground tests in the future.
The Priscilla Image Mix-up
Some pictures from an earlier test called Upshot-Knothole Grable were mistakenly labeled as belonging to the Priscilla shot from Operation Plumbbob. Because of this, many books and even official government papers have the wrong labels on these photos.
The Mystery of the Missing Steel Cap
In 1956, Dr. Robert Brownlee, a scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory, was asked to find out if nuclear explosions could be done underground. The first underground test was called Pascal A. The nuclear device was lowered into a 500-foot (152-meter) deep hole. However, the explosion was 50,000 times stronger than expected! It created a huge jet of fire that shot hundreds of feet into the sky.
During the Pascal-B nuclear test in August 1957, a heavy steel plate cap, weighing about 900 kilograms (almost 2,000 pounds), was welded over the borehole. The idea was to contain the nuclear blast. But Dr. Brownlee had predicted it wouldn't work. When Pascal-B exploded, the blast went straight up the test shaft. It launched the steel cap into the atmosphere at an incredible speed, more than 66 kilometers per second (about 41 miles per second).
The plate was never found. Scientists believe the cap got so hot from the air compression that it turned into gas as it flew through the atmosphere. A special high-speed camera, which took one picture every millisecond, was focused on the borehole. Scientists wanted to study how fast the plate moved. After the explosion, the plate appeared in only one picture. But this was enough to guess its speed. Dr. Brownlee joked that the best guess for the cap's speed was that it was "going like a bat!" He estimated the explosion could make the plate go about six times faster than Earth's escape velocity (the speed needed to leave Earth's gravity). In 2015, Dr. Brownlee said he thought the cap probably turned into gas before it could reach space. Later calculations in 2019 also strongly suggested it vaporized.
Images for kids
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Plumbbob Priscilla
See also
In Spanish: Operación Plumbbob para niños
