The Trinity Experiments; HSR Report 9701; WSMR Archaeological Report No. 97-15

The format is approximately 8.375 inches by 10.875 inches. [4], v, [1], 101, [1] pages. Illustrated front cover. Illustrations. Figures. Table. References Cited. The cover has minor wear and soiling. Some sticker residue on back cover. Prepared by Human Systems Research, Inc. for the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. This is the first study of the actual experiments associated with evaluating the effects of the nuclear explosion. Includes discussions of events leading up t the test and the experimental program, methods and sources, the physical remains of trinity experiments, results of the tests and Appendices including interviews, Trinity Experiments Summary Table, and Trinity artifacts. Thomas Merlan is a consulting historian. He was New Mexico Historic Preservation Officer 1974-1994, and is the author of The Power to Preserve (New Mexico Office of Cultural Affairs, 1996) and The Trinity Experiments (White Sands Missile Range, 1997). Human Systems Research, Inc. is a nonprofit scientific and educational institution, that has pursued basic and applied research in archaeology and related scientific and historic fields since 1972. HSR was founded with a focus on the archaeology of the Tularosa Basin in particular and on southern New Mexico in general. On July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time, the wold entered the Nuclear Age with the successful detonation of the first atomic bomb at Trinity Site in New Mexico. The Trinity Experiments is the first study of the actual experiments associated with evaluating the effects of the explosion. The study was very timely because, during the final year of this study, several scientists associated with the Manhattan Project and nuclear physics passed away. The Trinity Experiments describes some elements of the experimental program that accompanied the atomic test, with emphasis on experiments deployed in the core area of the test. The information should facilitate the identification of artifacts that may have remained in place after the test. Using oral interviews of scientists and their post-blast technical reports, plus historic photographs, Mr. Merlan has documented how the scientists adapted and modified their experiments from the original plans developed at Los Alamos and how they made do with the technology at hand, with no idea of the final magnitude of the explosion. Through the clearly written and nontechnical descriptions and illustrations of the experiments, the reader gains an understanding of how the first atomic explosion was recorded. Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. MWT (11:29:21 GMT) on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was of an implosion-design plutonium bomb, nicknamed the "gadget", of the same design as the Fat Man bomb later detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. Concerns about whether the complex Fat Man design would work led to a decision to conduct the first nuclear test. The code name "Trinity" was assigned by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, inspired by the poetry of John Donne. The test, both planned and directed by Kenneth Bainbridge, was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on what was the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range (renamed the White Sands Proving Ground just before the test). The only structures originally in the immediate vicinity were the McDonald Ranch House and its ancillary buildings, which scientists used as a laboratory for testing bomb components. Fears of a fizzle prompted construction of "Jumbo", a steel containment vessel that could contain the plutonium, allowing it to be recovered; but ultimately Jumbo was not used in the test. On May 7, 1945, a rehearsal was conducted, during which 108 short tons (98 t) of high explosive spiked with radioactive isotopes was detonated. Some 425 people were present on the weekend o.…