U.S. Begins Atom Weapon Test Series Today

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27584, 15 February 1955, Page 13

U.S. Begins Atom Weapon Test Series Today

(N.Z. Press Association—Copy right) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LAS VEGAS (Nevada), Feb. 14. It was speculated today that an improved atomic trigger for the hydrogen bomb might be the first device to undergo a test in the Atomic Energy Commission’s new series scheduled to begin tomorrow. The speculation arose from a statement by Dr. Alvin Graves, a veteran nuclear weapons tester, that the pre-dawn explosion would be a “major effort” for the Atomic Energy Commission’s laboratory at Livermore, California, which specialises in hydrogen weapons’ planning. Dr. Graves spoke at a press conference on the eve of operation “teapot,” the fifth and most exacting series the A.E.C. has held in Nevada in four years.

Barring a change in weather, the first test has been scheduled for about 1.45 p.m. on Tuesday at Yucca Fiat, the larger of the two A.E.C. proving grounds. The other is Frenchman Flat.

The Army is to participate in the first test. Several hundred troops will take trench positions about 4000 yards from ground zero. It was presumed that the device would be detonated from one of the A.E.C.’s higher towers, in accordance with the new official concern for radiation fall-out in the surrounding communities. It was explained that the higher the atomic fireball, the less dust sucked off the desert floor and the less danger there was of contamination within the immediate area. Mr Lewis Strauss, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, said yesterday that every test in this series was necessary from the standpoint of national security. “Soviet leaders have been boasting in recent days of their rapid progress and their early development of very powerful weapons," Mr Strauss said at a press conference. “We have no alternative but to keep our strength at peak levels. The consequences on any other course would imperil our liberty, even our existence.” Dr. Graves said the initial test would b° in ;»1] United

States weapon scientists, especially those at Livermore.

The A.E.C. said there would not be any shot bigger than the last one in the 1953 series in Nevada. That produced an explosion estimated at not less than 50 kilotons in power, or the equivalent of 50,000 tons of T.N.T. Reporters will net be allowed on the site to watch explosions until the civil defence field exercise in mid-April. Among the structures and equipment to be exposed to a nuclear blast will be several residences, new types of shelters, steel and aluminium Industrial buildings, food, and electrical and gas installations.