Film Of Atomic Tests Released U.S. Tested Nukes For Peaceful Purposes

The Energy Department released previously classified documents and film Monday about U.S. atomic blasts testing the use of nuclear explosives from 1961-73 to dig holes for peaceful purposes like harbors, tunnels and canals.

One at the Nevada Test Site on July 6, 1962, was six times the size of the bomb dropped at Hiroshima, displaced 12 million tons of earth and released the seismic energy equivalent of an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.75.

Newly released film of that “Project Sedan” shows the spectacular explosion and 320-foot-deep, 1,280-foot-diameter crater left behind by the 104-kiloton blast. The bomb at Hiroshima was 16 kilotons.

Energy Secretary Federico Pena previewed the films with reporters, including new footage he described as “disturbing” of radiation tests on pigs and other animals at nuclear test sites during the Cold War.

Other footage included then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy donning eye shades to view a blast at the Nevada Test Site in 1962.

The release of the previously secret material was part of the Clinton administration’s evolving policy of openness at DOE and was accompanied by new rule changes intended to protect whistleblowers who work for DOE contractors and to reverse the burden of proof when determining whether nuclear-related documents should be declared classified.

“In the past, documents have been assumed to be born classified. Starting today, that assumption is eliminated. Only materials with a compelling national security interest will be classified,” Pena said.

The DOE for the first time released specific yields for 11 of the 27 test blasts for peaceful purposes, the so-called “Plowshare Project” - all but four at the Nevada Test Site.

Most of the tests were totally contained under ground, ranging from less than 1 kiloton to slightly more than 11 kilotons. In a few cases, the nuclear explosive was at a shallow depth and created a crater. In addition to construction, the tests were used to determine possible use for drilling and mining.

The first was Dec. 10, 1961, at Carlsbad, N.M., and the last May 17, 1973, at Rifle, Colo. Others were at Farmington, N.M., and Grand Valley, Colo.

“Although a technical success, nuclear explosives for peaceful purposes were never used by the United States following the Plowshare program,” DOE said in a summary issued Monday.

Overall, the United States detonated 35 nuclear explosions in 27 peaceful tests. Russia has released information that the former Soviet Union detonated 173 nuclear explosives in 156 peaceful nuclear tests, DOE said.

Pena said the department also was releasing 270,000 pages of previously classified documents about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Richland and making them available to the public on the Internet.

Also released for the first time were details of trades for plutonium, tritium and enriched uranium between the United States and the United Kingdom from 1960 to 1979.

Pena said the documents released Monday nearly double the declassified DOE materials available to the public via the Internet.

“For example, our information about plutonium processing at Hanford now has been largely declassified,” he said.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WEB SEARCH New DOE documents are available on the World Wide Web: http://www.doe.gov/html/osti/opennet/opennet1.html