The "Smoky" shot of Operation Plumbbob.

Operation Plumbbob, conducted between May 28 and October 7, 1957, represented the biggest, longest, and most controversial nuclear test series in the history of the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The operation was the sixth test series and consisted of 29 detonations, of which two did not produce any nuclear yield. 21 laboratories and government agencies were involved. While most Operation Plumbbob tests contributed to the development of warheads for intercontinental and intermediate range missiles, they also tested air defense and anti-submarine warheads with small yields. They included 43 military effects tests on civil and military structures, radiation and bio-medical studies, and aircraft structural tests. Operation Plumbbob had the tallest tower tests to date in the U.S. nuclear testing program, as well as high-altitude balloon tests. One nuclear test involved the largest troop maneuver ever associated with U.S. nuclear testing. Image File history File links Plumbbob_Smoky. ... Image File history File links Plumbbob_Smoky. ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (149th in leap years). ... October 7 is the 280th day of the year (281st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Preparation for an underground nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site in the 1980s. ... November 1951 nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. ... A weapons cache is detonated at the East River Range on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan Detonation is a process of supersonic combustion that involves a shock wave and a reaction zone behind it. ... // The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy discharged when the weapon is detonated, expressed usually in the equivalent mass of trinitrotoluene (TNT), either in kilotons (thousands of tons of TNT) or megatons (million of tons of TNT), but sometimes also in terajoules (1 kiloton of... A warhead is an explosive device used in military conflicts, used to destroy enemy vehicles or buildings. ... A Minuteman III ICBM test launch from Vandenberg AFB, CA. An intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, is a very long-range (greater than 5,500 km or 3,500 miles) ballistic missile typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery, that is, delivering one or more nuclear warheads. ... An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range of 3,000-5,500 km. ... Exocet missile in flight A missile (see also pronunciation differences) is a projectile propelled as a weapon at a target. ... American troops man an anti-aircraft gun near the Algerian coastline in 1943 Anti-aircraft warfare, or air defense, is any method of engaging military aircraft in combat from the ground. ... A Hedgehog depth charge launcher. ... Radiation in physics is the process of emitting energy in the form of waves or particles. ... Balloons, like greeting cards or flowers, are given for special occasions. ...

Approximately 18,000 members of the U.S. armed forces participated in exercises Desert Rock VII and VIII during Operation Plumbbob. The military was interested in knowing how the average foot-soldier would stand up, physically and psychologically, to the rigors of the tactical nuclear battlefield. The Titan II ICBM carried a 9 Mt W53 warhead, making it one of the most powerful nuclear weapons fielded by the United States during the Cold War. ...

Studies were conducted of radiation contamination and fallout from a simulated accidental detonation of a weapon; and projects concerning earth motion, blast loading and neutron output were carried out. Map of hypothetical fallout dispersal after a large-scale nuclear attack against the United States. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Nuclear weapons safety experiments were conducted to study the possibility of a nuclear weapon detonation during an accident. On July 26, 1957, a safety experiment, "Pascal-A" was detonated in an unstemmed hole at NTS, becoming the first underground shaft nuclear test. The knowledge gained here would provide data to prevent nuclear yields in case of accidential detonations, for example a plane crash. July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The first detonation contained underground, "Rainier", was conducted on September 19, 1957, containing all radioactive products underground, thus producing no fallout. This test of 1.7 kilotons could be detected around the world by seismologists using ordinary seismic instruments. The Rainier test became the prototype for larger and more powerful underground tests. The test also subjected toughened weapons to the fireball underground. September 19 is the 262nd day of the year (263rd in leap years). ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A megaton or megatonne is a unit of mass equal to 1,000,000 metric tons, i. ... Seismology (from the Greek seismos = earthquake and logos = word) is the scientific study of earthquakes and the movement of waves through the Earth. ... Prototypes or prototypical instances combine the most representative attributes of a category. ...

Plumbbob released 58,300 kilocuries (2.16 EBq) of radioiodine (I-131) into the atmosphere. This produced total civilian radiation exposures amounting to 120 million person-rads of thyroid tissue exposure (about 32% of all exposure due to continental nuclear tests). This can be expected to eventually cause or have caused about 38,000 cases of thyroid cancer, leading to some 1900 deaths. ^{[citation needed]} In addition, troop exercises conducted near the ground near shot "Smoky" exposed over three thousand servicemen to relatively high levels of radiation. The curie (symbol Ci) is a former unit of radioactivity, defined as 3. ... The becquerel (symbol Bq) is the SI derived unit of radioactivity, defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. ... Radioiodine is the common name for iodine-131, a radioisotope of iodine. ... The rad is a unit of radiation dose, with symbol rad. ... Thyroid cancer is cancer of the thyroid gland. ...

Note: A study in 1980 found significantly elevated rates of leukemia among the soldiers surveyed (ten cases were found, instead of the baseline expected four). Leukemia (leukaemia in British English) is a cancer of the blood or bone marrow and is characterized by an abnormal proliferation of blood cells, usually white blood cells (leukocytes). ...

The tail, or “After” section of a U.S. Navy Blimp is shown with the Stokes cloud in background. Blimp was in temporary free flight in excess of five miles from ground zero when collapsed by the shock wave from the blast. The airship was unmanned and was used in military effects experiments on blast and heat. Navy personnel on the ground in the vicinity of the experimental area were unhurt. On ground to the left are remains of the forward section.

The tests comprising the 1957 Operation Plumbbob were as follows in TNT equivalent: Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2404x3000, 3537 KB) This page may meet Wikipedia’s criteria for speedy deletion. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2404x3000, 3537 KB) This page may meet Wikipedia’s criteria for speedy deletion. ...

The Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines continued the Desert Rock exercises, number VII and VIII with 13,300 personnel. May 28 is the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (149th in leap years). ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 2 is the 153rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (154th in leap years), with 212 days remaining. ... June 5 is the 156th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (157th in leap years), with 209 days remaining. ... June 18 is the 169th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (170th in leap years), with 196 days remaining. ... June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 190 days remaining. ... July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... July 5 is the 186th day of the year (187th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 179 days remaining. ... July 15 is the 196th day (197th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 169 days remaining. ... July 19 is the 200th day (201st in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 165 days remaining. ... An AIR-2 Genie on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force The Genie was an unguided air-to-air rocket with a nuclear warhead, used by interceptor aircraft of the United States Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force. ... July 24 is the 205th day (206th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 160 days remaining. ... July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 159 days remaining. ... July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... August 7 is the 219th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (220th in leap years), with 146 days remaining. ... August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... August 18 is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... August 23 is the 235th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (236th in leap years), with 130 days remaining. ... August 27 is the 239th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (240th in leap years), with 126 days remaining. ... August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... August 31 is the 243rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (244th in leap years), with 122 days remaining. ... September 2 is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years). ... September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years). ... September 8 is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years). ... September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ... September 16 is the 259th day of the year (260th in leap years). ... September 19 is the 262nd day of the year (263rd in leap years). ... September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... September 28 is the 271st day of the year (272nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... October 7 is the 280th day of the year (281st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Aircraft of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing and coalition counterparts stationed together at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, in southwest Asia, fly over the desert. ... The United States Army is the largest branch of the United States armed forces and has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... USN redirects here. ... The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the U.S. military responsible for providing power projection from the sea,[1] utilizing the mobility of the U.S. Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces to global crises. ...

The true first man-made object in space?

According to urban legend, a manhole cover was accidentally launched from its shaft during an underground nuclear test in the 1950s, at great enough speed to leave the solar system. The myth is based on a real incident during the Pascal-B test, where a heavy (900 kg) steel plate cap was blasted off the test shaft at tremendous velocity, never to be seen again, although it is doubtful that it left the atmosphere. It is believed to have been vaporised by atmospheric effects, due to the extreme velocity. An urban legend is a kind of modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. ... Princeton University manhole cover, Princeton, NJ, USA Pick holes in manhole cover, Palo Alto, CA, USA Kraków manhole cover Painted manhole cover in Matsumoto, Japan. ... The 1950s was the decade spanning from the 1st of January, 1950 to the 31st December, 1959. ... Major features of the Solar System (not to scale): The Sun, the eight planets, the asteroid belt containing the dwarf planet Ceres, outermost there is the dwarf planet Pluto (the dwarf planet Eris not shown), and a comet. ... Layers of Atmosphere (NOAA) Air redirects here. ...

This incident has been used as technical justification for the Orion project. An artists conception of the NASA reference design for the Project Orion spacecraft powered by nuclear propulsion. ...

References

• Department of Energy of Nevada Original source for test information.
• Plumbbob page on the Nuclear Weapons Archive.
• National Cancer Institute Study Estimating Thyroid Doses of I-131 Received by Americans From Nevada Atmospheric Nuclear Bomb Test, 1997