Evening star., 1962-04-25
Air Blast Opens U. S. Test Series in Pacific
Continued From Page Al


nuclear gadgets goD device
underground in Nevada sine
last fall.
Task Force on Station
And it has been almost eigh
months since Russia set off ;
series of powerful nuclear blast
on her Arctic proving ground
to shatter the moratorium OBJ
served by the two countries ant
Great Britain since 1858.
Joint Task Force 8-an or
ganization of more than l2,00t
men of the Air Force, Navy
Army, Marine Corps. Atomic
Energy Commission and con-
tractor employes-actually be.
gain preparations last Novem'
ber 2 when Mr.. Kennedy sale
the United States would gC
ahead with standby prepara.
tions for a resumption of at
mospheric tests.
The tempo of preparation:
has increased since Mr.. Ken
nedy announced March 2 that
the tests would be started late
this month unless Russia
agreed to a fool-proof system
for banning nuclear tests.
Swarms of military men
Acc experts and laborers de-
scended on the hitherto-lonely
islands of Christmas and john
ston-the former a British pos
session close to the Equator
he latter a United States island
airfield southwest of Hawaii.
Elaborate Facilities
There the task force. supplied
by trains of ships and planes,
has erected the facilities for
hurting thermometer war
heads into the edge of space,
dropping them from planes.
launching them in torpedoes
and depth charges-and, equal
ly important. trying out new
explosive recipes for producing
more nuclear yield from small
Ter packages.
BY this morning, the scene
was set. The warnings to ship
ping and aircraft to steer clear
of the Christmas Island area
had gone into effect 10 days
ago. The Christmas Islands
designated area is a rectangle
600 by 800 miles, to which q
smaller Q20 by 240 miles rec
tangle) adjacent area was
added.
The Johnston Island area is
circular, radiating out 470
nautical miles at the surface.
1t is an inverted cone, with a
radius of 700 miles at an alti-
tude of 10000 feet.
Altitude Shots
The warning deadline for
Johnston is April 80. The
peculiar shape of the Johnston
Island zone indicated strongly
that the big. high altitude Cup
to several hundred niles shots
may be lofted on rockets from
there.
All this indicated that the
first shots, perhaps compara-
lively small field tests aimed at
gaining improved nuclear ef-
ficiency, were to be made at
Christmas Island.
Mr.. Kennedy, in his address
of March 2, specified that the
detonations would be conducted
to seaward of the islands in
stead of on or over them.
Mindful of worldwide fears of
fallout, the President empha-
sized safety for this new series
He said by paying careful at
tention to location, wind and
weather and by holding tests
at sea it was intended to rule
out fallout problems in the test
areas and that radiation in the
Northern Hemisphere would be
held to Every low level"
Any fallout that comes dowr
fairly soon from the new tests
is expected to be limited mostly
to a worldwide belt ranging
from about 1000 to $500 miles
wide in tropical latitudes.
Visible in Hawaii
At least three of the tests are
expected to be visible in Hawaii
hundreds of miles from the
testing areas. Officials have
promised that at least a days
notice will be given of any ex-
plosions that may be seen from
the island State.
The Government said thai
no supersize explosions-such a!
the 58-megaton shot in thu
Soviet series would be deto'
mated. This has led to specula'
ton the United States seriei
might be limited to blasts M
larger than 10 megatons (th'
equivalent of energy yielded b.
detonation of 10 million ton
of TNTD
Mr.. Kennedy had summed VI
the reason for reSuming atmos
pheric testing this way:
IA nation which is refrainin!
from tests obviously canno
match the gains of a natiol
conducting tests"
But at the same time, MI
Kennedy expressed belief tina
Russia's series last fall did no
provide the Soviet Union wit
superiority in nuclear lower.
Gereral Objectives
The detectives Of the ne7
United States series general
are these:
/. Improve the eXplosiv
yield so that bigger warhea