TR-326 - Trip to Nevada Test Site for Test Coordination of Kankakee, May 30 through June 3, 1966.

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- Trip to Nevada Test Site for Test Coordination of Kankakee, May 30 thru From LOCATION Research Department - Mound Laboratory CC: Distribut ion: Bert Blanke, Mose Baston, Ron Goss and Mike Green visited the Nevada Test Site, Camp Mercury, Nevada, to observe the final assembly of the Kankakee Device. The secondary of this device was the first to be completely assembled by Mr. William Crothers and Mr. Al Wisgardie of the LRL acted as our hosts. Our visit was timed to coincide with the arrival of the secondary at the test site, Tuesday morning, May 31st. However, the couriers failed to arrive until Wednesday due to mechanical breakdown enroute from Savannah River Laboratory. This did not adversely effect the schedule, since a five day hold had been placed on Kankakee before we arrived. Radiographs of the secondary showed it to be in good shape in spite of the unusual routing of the couriers. The final assembly of the device was shown to us using a dummy secondary and primary. This device was designed to be used as the war-head of a missile. The device was placed in a simulated nose cone, surrounded by pressed and machined Boric Acid, serving as a reflector simulating the conditions of an air burst. The entire assembly was approximately 2e in diameter and 4' tall. We were next taken to the Control Point. All shots are fired from this building. The firing sequence is controlled by program. No monitoring equipment other than closed circuit television and seismographic equipment are located in this building. Radar scanners to control the entry of planes over the test site are manned by the Air Force and are located at Control Point.

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We traveled about ten miles from Control Point to the test hole that had been drilled for Kankakee. Approximately one-half mile from the hole, the diagnostic trailer is located. This trailer is filled with oscilloscopes equipped with recording cameras. These scopes record gamma and neutron levels that are emitted from the beginning of implosion until the monitoring instruments are destroyed by the explosion. This particular test hole was 1500 feet deep and 4 feet wide. The metal casing extends the entire depth of the hole. The instrument package, containing neutron counters and gamma and x-ray counters (photo-scintillators) had been prepared and was ready to receive the device. The instrument package, approximately 30 feet long and 2 feet in diameter is secured to the device container. The entire assembly, including a "Zircon" placed at the bottom of the device, is encased and sealed in a cylinder. This cylinder weighs almost 17 tons when loaded. The coaxial cables leading from the instrument package are numerous, forming a bundle one foot in diameter. The copper center of each individual cable is k" diameter. These must carry a load of 200 amps for a few nanoseconds. These cables lead back to the diagnostics trailer and are fed to the oscilloscopes through a time delay device that permits a number of signals emitted simultaneously to be fed in orderly succession to the scopes. From the scope pictures, the timing of the various parts of the device is measured and the relative success or failure of the device determined. The "Zircon" mentioned earlier is not a part of the device, but is a bonus extra. It is used for irradiation of various materials, making use of the heavy neutron flux (10 23 ) to produce transuranic elements. These, of course, are recovered by drilling into the core at the explosion center and withdrawing samples. Almost all the elements above No. 96, were formed using the Zircon method.

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After leaving Kankakee site, we stopped at the Sedan Crater. This was among the last of the atmospheric shots and was a Plowshare test designed to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear excavation. A 100 kt device was detonated at a depth of 700 feet. The crater formed was an almost geometrically perfect cone k mile in diameter. The crater has since filled in somewhat, but still is an awesome sight to see. It was considered a most successful shot. Over 400 test shots have been fired at the Nevada Test Site. Consequently the ground is considerably pockmarked by depressions formed by the collapse of the earth into the cavity formed by the device explosion. Judging from the number of drilling rigs seen around the site, business Friday, June 3, we visited LRL, Livermore, California. Mr. Wm. Crothers escorted us on a tour of some of the facilities, specifically the Machine Shop, Non-destructive Testing area, Plutonium Laboratory, Project Sherwood and the Computer Building. The Machine Shop is well equipped to do extremely precise work. Most machines which are used here are rebuilt by the laboratory to achieve high precision. A hydrostatic metal forming press was demonstrated. This press forms odd-shaped pieces from metal blocks. Its' unique feature is uniform wall thickness of the parts The gaging equipment was extremely sophisticated. A Sheffield Rotary Contour gage capable of continuous measurement of wall thickness of shells was demonstrated. In the Non-destructive Testing building, ultrasonic equipment, capable of detecting flows as small as -001" was demonstrated. LRL is putting considerable effort into this type of equipment and its' use, particularly its' application to detect minute flaws in Electron Beam Welds.

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The x-ray equipment was quite extensive and covered a broad spectrum from 18 Kev to 2 Mev. The plutonium laboratory was of particular interest to us. Two electron beam welders were enclosed in dry boxes. One for hot work and one for cold work. A Sheffield Rotocan gauge was also enclosed in a dry box. This laboratory was filled with equipment and somewhat cramped for working space. Of great interest to us, were the two controlled fusion devices in use on Project Sherwood. One device called "ALICE" was of rather straight forward operation. A plasma of hydrogen (Hi) was accelerated at high potential into a magnetic bottle until the nuclei population reached approximately 10 13 /cc, at which density fusion could take place. Energy of the resulting neutrons is absorbed in lithium and extracted as heat. High magnetic fields are of course required. Just prior to our visit, the magnet of this machine had broken its' restraining bolts (eight, one inch diameter copper berylium bolts) and was inoperative. The Astron thermonuclear device operated on a completely different principle. This machine was huge and required enormous electrical energy. A stream of electrons is caused to move longitudinally down a tube in a spiral. The moving current forms a magnetic field inside the spiral. At sufficient current density, the field closes at each end of the spiral. At this point deuterium is injected into the magnetic bottle just formed. Energy from the spiraling electrons heats the plasma to fusion temperature. 50 Mev electrons are required in order to achieve power output from the fusion reaction. I do not know whether the machine has achieved this as yet. The machine requires massive shielding from the emitted radiation. We were not able to see the accelerating tube, because it was being fired at the time we were there.

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The tour was concluded with a visit to the new Computer Facilities just built at LRL. We saw the IBM computer "Stretch". Equations describing a device can be fed into this computer and the device "detonated" by the computer. The result is displayed on a cathode ray tube and photographed on motion picture film. The film, when exhibited, shows pictorially the progress of the "detonation" and how each part in the device functions. This building also houses two of the largest computers in the world, the Control Data 6600. Each machine is capable of running twelve programs simultaneously. The printer for the computers prints at a rate of 60,000 characters Inputs and outputs are stored on magnetic tape. Tape storage seems to be their biggest problem. Although we did not witness a test shot as scheduled, we did gain considerable appreciation for the complexity of testing and the need for complete coordination among all