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 CHAPTER 3

CROSSROADS EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM

INTRODUCTION

In late 1945 and early 1946 several conferences were held by the Manhattan Engineer District Project with the military services. It was agreed that the CROSSROADS program should gather data:


 * On the nature, range, and duration of radiation danger


 * On bomb efficiency, burst location, wave formation, and ship movement


 * For ship designers and ordnance designers to aid in assessing damage from and designing protection against nuclear weapons


 * That would be helpful in learning to detect nuclear detonations.

As a result, CROSSROADS had two experimental programs. The first was to determine nuclear weapon effects on military equipment, such as ships, planes, and supplies, and on animals. The second was to measure weapon phenomena such as blast, heat, radiation, and wave action. The ABLE and BAKER tests were not weapon development tests; in fact, the bombs used were of the same design as the one dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

The Deputy Task Force Commander for Technical Direction had responsibility for both experimental programs. To accomplish this mission he had two organizations under his control. The first was the Ship Material and Inspection Division, headed by the Director of Ship Material (DSM), and the second was the Instrumentation Division, headed by the Technical Director.

EFFECTS ON MILITARY EQUIPMENT

The Ship Material and Inspection Division was responsible for determining weapon effects on military equipment. The organization of the Ship Material and Inspection Division contained both Army and Navy elements (see Figure 13). Responsibilities included preparing the ships, aircraft, equipment, supplies, and animals for each test and determining the exact cause and extent of damage. Decontaminating ships and material after the second test also became a responsibility of this group. Duties included distinguishing between damage caused by the direct effects of the explosion and damage caused by indirect effects such as fires and flooding. Table 4 shows the exposures received by personnel in each of the groups under the DSM.

The DSM set up a two-phase program to accomplish his mission. The first phase was readying the target ships, aircraft, and equipment and included conditioning, loading, instrumenting, and preparing specific equipment, and

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