Word: megatoner
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Atomic Energy Commission scientists last week were "keyed up and ready" to take the U.S. into a new high level of nuclear testing. First shot on the agenda: a giant skyrocket exploding not more than 60 miles above Johnston Island, its sub-megaton flash visible in Hawaii 700 miles away, its power sending waves of electrical disturbance around the earth to be picked up by sensitive instruments...
Apart from the bare announcement that two bombs, one of them in the "low-megaton-yield range" had been dropped from airplanes and exploded over the Pacific, the newest U.S. nuclear test series supplied little news last week. Neither diplomatic policy nor the need for military secrecy completely explained the comparative silence. There was, in fact, little to be told. Test bombs are not exploded merely to see if they will work or to admire the bang. The instrumental setup is enormously complicated, with seismographs, barographs, radiation detectors, photocells, and many more subtle instruments spread over hundreds of miles...
Several of the tests, including at least one in the megaton range, will be exploded in space, as high as 100 miles above the earth. The purpose will be partly to observe the little-known behavior of nuclear explosions in a virtual vacuum, partly to test the effect of neutrons, X rays and other radiation on radio communication, missiles and satellites. The Air Force already has several satellites orbiting over the test area. The Russians may send observation satellites of their own, but the tests can probably be timed so that such foreign space snoopers will get no close look...
...intermediate-yield range." Two days later, the U.S. fired a second shot, also in the "intermediate range." That term meant that the power of both explosions was of more than 20 kilotons, but less than one megaton-insignificant in comparison with Russia's 58-megaton terror blast last year. A low-power test was also held underground in Nevada...
While Kennedy seemed to be weighing all the arguments, his mind was made up: the U.S. would almost certainly have to test in the air. The clincher came from old Testing Foe Hans Bethe, whose detailed study showred that the Soviet blasts had been badly underrated. That 58-megaton bomb, Bethe reported, actually was a 100-megaton giant tamped down by a casing of lead. The U.S.S.R. could hang this on its biggest operational missile and hurl the full 100 megatons across 3,500 miles to the U.S. The Russians had made great gains in putting a bigger punch into...