"PLOWSHARE PROGRAM"

"Atoms for Peace" was the title of a speech delivered by Dwight D. Eisenhower to the UN General Assembly in New York City on December 8, 1953.

"I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new--one which I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use. That new language is the language of atomic warfare."

The United States then launched an "Atoms for Peace" program that supplied equipment and information to schools, hospitals, and research institutions within the U.S. and throughout the world.

Subject: Projects GNOME and SEDAN, The PLOWSHARE Program

The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) established the PLOWSHARE program in June 1957, under the technical direction of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (LRL).

The program consisted of27 nuclear detonations conducted at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) and other sites in Colorado and New Mexico from 1961 to 1973.

The nuclear tests were all underground, either shaft or cratering shots, and they had yields of no more than 200 kilotons. The PLOWSHARE nuclear detonations were designed to determine nonmilitary applications of nuclear explosives. The primary potential use envisioned was in large- scale geographic engineering, in such projects as canal, harbor, and dam construction, the stimulation of oil and gas wells, ant mining.

This report describes the activities of DOD personnel and other participants in Projects GNOME and SEDAN, the first two nuclear tests of the PLOWSHARE Program.

The PLOWSHARE nuclear tests were conducted from 1961 to 1973 at the Nevada Test Site and other locations. Activities engaging DOD personnel at GNOME and SEDAN included scientific experiments to improve U.S. capabilities in detecting underground nuclear explosions and to determine peacetime uses of nuclear explosives.

2.5 AIR FORCE SPECIAL WEAPONS CENTER ACTIVITIES AT PROJECT GNOME

The Air Force conducted several support missions at Shot GNOME. Available documents suggest that various Air Force units under the operational control of the Air Force Special Weapons Center conducted a security sweep, cloud-sampling mission, cloud-tracking and radiological safety sweep, and support missions.

Project GNOME, a shaft detonation, was fired at 1200 hours Mountain Standard Time on 10 December 1961 at a site 40 kilometers southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico. 

Security Sweep

An Air Force H-21 helicopter with a two-man crew made a security sweep of the area in an eight-kilometer radius of ground zero. The helicopter began the sweep two hours before the detonation and concluded it 90 minutes later. The helicopter then moved to a position over New Mexico Highway 128, north of the Control Point, to observe traffic and to ensure that no unauthorized vehicles were in the shot area.

Cloud Tracking and Radiological Safety Sweep

An Air Force H-21 helicopter and crew, likely the same one that conducted the security sweep, conducted a cloud-tracking and radiological safety sweep beginning one minute after the detonation and continuing for two or three hours,

More information is available here 

If you have any information on the Air force helicopter unit that supported this please let us know.

Subject: SHOTS WHEELER TO MORGAN, The Final Eight Tests of the PLUMBBOB Series

6 SEPTEMBER - 7 OCTOBER 1957

"FREEDOM ISN'T FREE"

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