NUCLEAR TEST

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31234, 5 December 1966, Page 17

NUCLEAR TEST

Detection Trials 'N Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) HATTIESBURG (Mississippi), Dec. 4. The United States yesterday exploded a nuclear bomb more than a halfmile underground to test detection methods. The device was exploded in a vast cavity 2700 ft below the ground. It contained the equivalent of 350 tons of t.n.t. Although reporters and other observers watching from a point one mile and a half from the place of detonation heard no sound when the blast went off, the needle of seismograph at the observation point jumped sharply several times. Scientists said before the test that a successful demonstration of the “sneak” technique might help towards developing a means of detecting any sneak underground nuclear explosions, and possibly speed ratification by all nations of an underground test ban because governments would realise that one nation could detect the test conducted by another.

Bunker Blast.—Four tons of nitro-glycerine stored in an underground bunker blew up on Saturday at the United States Powder Company plant south-west of Marion, Illinois. One man was missing and four others were treated for injuries.—Marion, Dec. 4.