Part of Lab’s Heritage classified lecture series
The early days of testing the first generation of thermonuclear weapons will be the focus of a classified colloquium featuring veterans of the Manhattan Project scheduled for Wednesday.
The panel discussion of the 1954 testing series known as Operation Castle, is scheduled for 1:10 p.m., in the Administration Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3, and is part of the Classified Heritage Series.
Led by former Laboratory associate director John Hopkins, the panel will include four veterans of the Castle test series: former Laboratory Director Harold Agnew, Manhattan Project veterans Ben Diven and Jay Wechsler and Laboratory Fellow Stirling Colgate.
All attendees must be U.S nationals who hold “Q” clearances and have sigmas 1-10 assigned by line management. Attendees must present a Department of Energy Standard “Q” badge, which will be read by a scanner at the entrance to the auditorium and checked against a list in the scanner memory to verify sigma authorities.
The first thermonuclear weapons were tested at Bikini and Eniwetok atolls between February and May of 1954 in Operation Castle. Castle followed up on the theoretical concept proven by the success of the Mike test on Nov. 1, 1952. Michael Bernardin of Thermonuclear Applications (X-2) will provide a brief history of the road from Mike to Castle prior to the panel discussion.
“The Castle tests verified design concepts which would characterize most U.S. high-yield thermonuclear weapons for the next half-century,” said Laboratory historian Alan Carr, who organized the colloquium.
For more information, see the April 14 Daily Newsbulletin. Additional information about the Laboratory’s history, especially the Manhattan Project, is available at http://www.lanl.gov/history/index.shtml online.
