Long Shot Test
To conduct the Vela Uniform test Long Shot, the Department of Defense occupied Amchitka from 1964 to 1966, with the AEC providing the device, measuring instruments, and scientific support. The goal was "to determine the behavior and characteristics of seismic signals generated by nuclear detonations and to differentiate them from seismic signals generated by naturally occurring earthquakes."
Although it would not be publicly announced until March 18, 1965, senior Alaskan officials were notified the previous February. After the devastating Great Alaska Earthquake of March 27, 1964, the governor expressed concern about the psychological effects of the test on the populace. He was quickly reassured.
Long Shot was detonated on October 29, 1965, and the yield was 80 kilotons (330 TJ). It was the first underground test in a remote area, and the first test managed by the DoD. While there was no surface collapse, tritium and krypton were found at the surface following the test; this was not made public until 1969.
Read more about this topic: Amchitka
Famous quotes containing the words long, shot and/or test:
“White in the moon the long road lies,
The moon stands blank above;
White in the moon the long road lies
That leads me from my love.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)
“When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“Utopias are presented for our inspection as a critique of the human state. If they are to be treated as anything but trivial exercises of the imagination. I suggest there is a simple test we can apply.... We must forget the whole paraphernalia of social description, demonstration, expostulation, approbation, condemnation. We have to say to ourselves, “How would I myself live in this proposed society? How long would it be before I went stark staring mad?””
—William Golding (b. 1911)