Operation_Crosstie

Operation Crosstie

Operation Crosstie

Series of 1960s US nuclear tests

Operation Crosstie[1] was a series of 48 nuclear tests conducted by the United States in 1967–1968 at the Nevada Test Site. These tests followed the Operation Latchkey series and preceded the Operation Bowline series.

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Nuclear tests

Gasbuggy

Main article: Gasbuggy

The blast designated Gasbuggy involved an underground detonation, intended to stimulate production of natural gas by cracking the rock in the underground formation of its deposit. The test proceeded as expected, but not only did the production not increase as much as expected, but the customers also refused to buy gas contaminated with traces of radioisotopes.

Faultless

The Faultless test was a calibration test conducted in a mine cavity 3,200 feet beneath the Hot Creek Valley near Tonopah, Nevada, with a yield of around 1 megaton. This test was conducted to see if the land was fit for testing a 5 megaton thermonuclear warhead for the Spartan missile.[2] The test failed because of the large degree of faulting that resulted in the area around the test. It was decided that the land was unfit for multi-megaton nuclear tests, so a similar calibration test was conducted at Amchitka Island, Alaska, in the fall of 1969 during Operation Mandrel.

The 8 foot diameter steel pipe that was used to place the bomb remains at the test site. The top of the pipe was originally flush with the surface; however, the ground sank by nine feet following the explosion.[3] A plaque is mounted on the exposed pipe to commemorate the event.

Plaque at the Project Faultless test site.

Buggy

Buggy was a Plowshare test designed to excavate a channel. It was a simultaneous detonation of 5 devices, placed 150 feet (46 m) apart and 150 feet (46 m) below the surface that resulted in a channel 300 feet (91 m) wide, 900 feet long, and 80 feet (24 m) deep .[4] Or 65 feet deep and 254 feet wide, according to declassified U.S. film.[5]

The USSR conducted a similar salvo-test to investigate the use of nuclear explosions in the construction of the Pechora–Kama Canal project. On March 23, 1971, three simultaneously detonated 15 kiloton underground nuclear charges were exploded in the Taiga test.[6]

Rickey

Rickey was the first Los Alamos test to use a television PINEX (pin-hole neutron experiment) system. A fluor was imaged using a newtonian telescope which was split for imaging by two cameras by a beam splitter. The instrument package containing the television system was protected from neutrons and gamma rays by kinking the path between it and the nuclear device and by placing baffles along the optical path pipe.[7]

List of nuclear tests

The United States's Crosstie nuclear test series was a group of 48 nuclear tests conducted in 1967–1968. These tests [note 1] followed the Operation Latchkey series and preceded the Operation Bowline series.

See also: List of nuclear weapons tests of the United States
More information Name, Date time (UT) ...
  1. [N 1]
    A bomb test may be a salvo test, defined as two or more explosions "where a period of time between successive individual explosions does not exceed 5 seconds and where the burial points of all explosive devices can be connected by segments of straight lines, each of them connecting two burial points and does not exceed 40 kilometers in length".Mikhailov, V. N. "Catalog of World Wide Nuclear Testing". Begell-Atom. Archived from the original on April 26, 2014.
  2. [N 2]
    The US, France and Great Britain have code-named their test events, while the USSR and China did not, and therefore have only test numbers (with some exceptions – Soviet peaceful explosions were named). Word translations into English in parentheses unless the name is a proper noun. A dash followed by a number indicates a member of a salvo event. The US also sometimes named the individual explosions in such a salvo test, which results in "name1 – 1(with name2)". If test is canceled or aborted, then the row data like date and location discloses the intended plans, where known.
  3. [N 3]
    To convert the UT time into standard local, add the number of hours in parentheses to the UT time; for local daylight saving time, add one additional hour. If the result is earlier than 00:00, add 24 hours and subtract 1 from the day; if it is 24:00 or later, subtract 24 hours and add 1 to the day.
  4. [N 4]
    Rough place name and a latitude/longitude reference; for rocket-carried tests, the launch location is specified before the detonation location, if known. Some locations are extremely accurate; others (like airdrops and space blasts) may be quite inaccurate. "~" indicates a likely pro-forma rough location, shared with other tests in that same area.
  5. [N 5]
    Elevation is the ground level at the point directly below the explosion relative to sea level; height is the additional distance added or subtracted by tower, balloon, shaft, tunnel, air drop or other contrivance. For rocket bursts the ground level is "N/A". In some cases it is not clear if the height is absolute or relative to ground, for example, Plumbbob/John. No number or units indicates the value is unknown, while "0" means zero. Sorting on this column is by elevation and height added together.
  6. [N 6]
    Atmospheric, airdrop, balloon, gun, cruise missile, rocket, surface, tower, and barge are all disallowed by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Sealed shaft and tunnel are underground, and remained useful under the PTBT. Intentional cratering tests are borderline; they occurred under the treaty, were sometimes protested, and generally overlooked if the test was declared to be a peaceful use.
  7. [N 7]
    Include weapons development, weapon effects, safety test, transport safety test, war, science, joint verification and industrial/peaceful, which may be further broken down.
  8. [N 8]
    Designations for test items where known, "?" indicates some uncertainty about the preceding value, nicknames for particular devices in quotes. This category of information is often not officially disclosed.
  9. [N 9]
    Estimated energy yield in tons, kilotons, and megatons. A ton of TNT equivalent is defined as 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie).
  10. [N 10]
    Radioactive emission to the atmosphere aside from prompt neutrons, where known. The measured species is only iodine-131 if mentioned, otherwise it is all species. No entry means unknown, probably none if underground and "all" if not; otherwise notation for whether measured on the site only or off the site, where known, and the measured amount of radioactivity released.

References

  1. [1]
    Yang, Xiaoping; North, Robert; Romney, Carl (August 2000), CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3), SMDC Monitoring Research
  2. [2]
    "latimes". Los Angeles Times. June 28, 2009. Archived from the original on July 2, 2009. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  3. [3]
    "Project Faultless". Archived from the original on October 12, 2018. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
  4. [4]
    Byrne, John; Rich, Daniel (1986). The Politics of Energy Research and Development, Energy Policy Studies, Volume 3. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0-88738-653-4. Archived from the original on February 15, 2023. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  5. [5]
    "Declassified U.S. Nuclear Test Film #35 c. 6:30 minutes". YouTube. Archived from the original on June 13, 2017. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  6. [6]
    The Soviet Taiga PNE
  7. [7]
    Betty L Perkins (November 3, 2003). Tracing the Origins of the W76: 1966-Spring 1973 (PDF) (Report). Los Alamos National Labs. p. III-30 to III-31. LA-14066-H. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 15, 2023. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  8. [8]
    "Time Zone Historical Database". iana.com. Archived from the original on March 11, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  9. [9]
    Official list of underground nuclear explosions, Sandia National Laboratories, July 1, 1994, retrieved December 18, 2013
  10. [10]
    United States Nuclear Tests: July 1945 through September 1992 (PDF) (DOE/NV-209 REV15), Las Vegas, NV: Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office, December 1, 2000, archived from the original (PDF) on October 12, 2006, retrieved December 18, 2013
  11. [11]
    Estimated exposures and thyroid doses received by the American people from Iodine-131 in fallout following Nevada atmospheric nuclear bomb tests, Chapter 2 (PDF), National Cancer Institute, 1997, archived from the original (PDF) on December 21, 2010, retrieved January 5, 2014
  12. [12]
    Radiological Effluents Released from U.S. Continental Tests 1961 Through 1992 (DOE/NV-317 Rev. 1) (PDF), DOE Nevada Operations Office, August 1996, archived from the original (PDF) on November 3, 2013, retrieved October 31, 2013
  13. [13]
    Bolt, Bruce A. (1976), Nuclear Explosions and Earthquakes: The Parted Veil, San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman and Co.
  14. [14]
    Operation Argus, 1958 (DNA6039F), Washington, DC: Defense Nuclear Agency, Department of Defense, 1982, archived from the original on November 16, 2021, retrieved November 26, 2013
  15. [15]
    Norris, Robert Standish; Cochran, Thomas B. (February 1, 1994), "United States nuclear tests, July 1945 to 31 December 1992 (NWD 94-1)" (PDF), Nuclear Weapons Databook Working Paper, Washington, DC: Natural Resources Defense Council, archived from the original (PDF) on October 29, 2013, retrieved October 26, 2013
  16. [16]
    Hechanova, Anthony E.; O'Donnell, James E. (September 25, 1998), Estimates of yield for nuclear tests impacting the groundwater at the Nevada Test Site, Nuclear Science and Technology Division
  17. [17]
    Sublette, Carey, Nuclear Weapons Archive, retrieved January 6, 2014
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