![]() The Cold War ended nearly three decades ago and then the Doomsday Clock was set to 17 minutes to midnight. Trinity was the first of more than 2,000 nuclear tests, which contaminated the world’s atmosphere with radioactive particles known as nuclear fallout. “ Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds” were the famous words of J.R. On July 16, 1945, at 5:29:45 am the “Gadget” was detonated, with an explosive power equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT, causing a bright flash of light, a mushroom cloud that grew to a height of about 12 km, and a shock wave that was felt 250 km away from Ground Zero. Scientists and military officers observed the test from a distance of 10–32 km. ![]() The construction was equivalent to the one used for the “Fat Man” bomb, which was dropped on Nagasaki only a few weeks later. On July 14, 1945, the world’s first nuclear bomb, a plutonium implosion device code-named “The Gadget” was installed on top of a 30 m tower. The desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico was chosen as the test site. The project took place simultaneously in several locations: the weapons were developed in Los Alamos, New Mexico uranium-235 was enriched at Oak Ridge, Tennessee and plutonium-239 was produced at Hanford, Washington. ![]() ![]() The so-called “Trinity” Test was carried out as part of the Manhattan Project, a nuclear weapon research operation begun in 1939. Army’s White Sands Missile Range was the site of the world’s first nuclear explosion. Warren Air Force Base.)Īlamogordo as a testing ground for military aircraft, drones and other top-secret programs and as the convergence point of Holloman Air Force Base, Fort Bliss, and White Sands Testing Grounds as such Alamogordo is also a strong potential target in the event of a superpower nuclear exchange.Īlamogordo, New Mexico located in the nearby Jornada del Muerto desert, the U.S. (Others include Barksdale Air Force Base, Malmstrom Air Force Base, Minot Air Force Base, F. Kirtland AFB is the third largest installation in Air Force Global Strike Command. It hosts the Air Force's Nuclear Weapons Center, Sandia National Laboratories, and what is probably the nation's (and perhaps the world's) largest repository of nuclear weapons, estimated at up to 2,500 warheads. ![]() Kirtland Air Force Base, which abuts and shares some runways with the Albuquerque airport, has become an important nuclear weapons complex. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |