Word: blast
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...mating new warheads to missiles; and to conduct "proof" tests of weapons already in the Soviet stockpile. The current test series is almost certainly providing the Russians with valuable data for development of small-and medium-yield weapons, an area where they have been weak. At least one underwater blast, totaling 10 kilotons, was probably the developmental test of a depth charge geared with an eye on the threat of U.S. Polaris missiles...
...Committee says, "In the event of being struck by an iceberg . . . the 'life' boats would certainly sink along with the ship." This is, of course, untrue. Fallout shelters outside the blast area would not be destroyed...
...most strongly worded public arguments so far for the U.S. to continue with its underground nuclear testing, and to resume atmospheric tests, no matter what the Soviet Union does. Rockefeller predicted that Russia will complete its current series of tests, then "turn its face from the scene of the blast, with an air of virtue and innocence, and say to us: 'Now, shouldn't we all stop testing these awful weapons...
Local Fallout. Not much of this information has been made public, but besides estimating the power of the Russian blast at 30 megatons, the U.S. confirmed the fact that it took place at 12,000 ft. above the ground. The bomb was carried aloft by a rocket, perhaps, or, more likely, suspended from a captive balloon. However it was hoisted, the bomb's height was carefully chosen to minimize local fallout. If the fireball did not touch the ground before it stopped expanding, little or none of its radioactive material would mix with pulverized soil blown...
Unwelcome Cloud. Even if the blast gave no local fallout, it surely created some fission products that stayed below the stratosphere to drift with the winds of the lower atmosphere until rain or snow brought them down. By studying their charts, U.S. meteorologists figured that this cloud of tropospheric fallout moved southward into Russia, then swung eastward to cross Siberia. At week's end, it was heading across to the U.S. (see map) near Oregon and Idaho where rain was expected to wash some of its radioactive debris to earth...