Storax Sedan ( Eng. Storax Sedan ) - underground nuclear test conducted on July 6, 1962 at the Landfill in Nevada as part of Operation Lemeh ( Eng. Operation Plowshare ) - a program to study the use of nuclear weapons for mining, craters and other peaceful purposes. The Sedan crater formed during the testing process is the largest artificial crater in the USA and is included in the National Register of Historic Places of the USA .
Content
Effects
The “Sedan” charge was a fusion device with the following distribution of energy output: from dividing by less than 30% and from fusion reactions about 70%. The explosive device was lowered into a well drilled to a depth of 194 m (636 feet). The explosion had a power equivalent to 104 kilotons of TNT (435 terajoules), and raised the dome of the earth 90 meters above the desert. At the same time, more than 11 million tons of soil was thrown out. As a result of the explosion, a crater was formed with a depth of 100 m and a diameter of about 390 m. The explosion caused a seismic wave equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude 4.75. The radiation level at the edge of the crater, 1 hour after the explosion, was 500 roentgens per hour , but after 27 days it dropped to 500 mR / h, and after 167 days at the bottom of the crater was 35 mR / h. By 1990, radiation levels had dropped to 53 μR / h. [1] .
![[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nevada_Test_Site_-_Sedan_Crater_-_1.JPG){kind=link}
Implications
The explosion produced a radioactive cloud, which split into two. Child clouds rose to a height of 3.0 km and 4.9 km each. Both plumes headed north-east and then to the east in approximately parallel ways towards the Atlantic Ocean. Radioactive fallout , which took place along the way, occurred in a relatively small number of regions of the United States. The radioactivity detected was particularly high in eight counties in Iowa and one in each of the counties of Nebraska , South Dakota and Illinois .
Of all the nuclear tests conducted in the United States, Sedan ranks first in the overall activity of radionuclide deposition. It is estimated that it contributed to the release of a little less than 7% of the total amount of radiation that fell on the US population during all nuclear tests at the Nevada test site.
Conclusions
The purpose of the Sedan explosion project of the Lemech project was to determine the possibility and feasibility of using nuclear explosions to quickly and economically extract large volumes of land and rocks. It has been suggested that this will be used in the construction of harbors, canals, quarries, railways and highways and the construction of dams. An evaluation of the effect of the Sedan test showed that the radioactive fallout from such an application would be enormous. Public concern about the health effects and lack of political support ultimately led to a rejection of the concept. More such tests in the United States were not conducted.
See also
- Operation "Ploucher"