Long Shot (nuclear test) (nonfiction)

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Film still from a DOE film about Project Long Shot, part of the Amchitka testing program. The dirt is being displaced by an 80 kiloton nuclear test.

Long Shot (or Flintlock Long Shot) was a nuclear weapons test in Amchitka, Alaska on October 29, 1965.

It was part of the Project Flintlock series of 47 nuclear weapons tests, which occurred at various sites. Flintlock was administered under Vela Uniform, an element of Project Vela, undertaken by the United States Department of Defense to develop and implement methods to monitor compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty.

Background

Amchitka was selected by the United States Atomic Energy Commission to be the site for underground detonations of nuclear weapons. Three such tests were carried out:

  • Long Shot, an 80-kiloton (330 TJ) blast in 1965;
  • Milrow, a 1-megaton (4.2 PJ) blast in 1969;
  • Cannikin in 1971 – at 5 Mt (21 PJ), the largest underground test ever conducted by the United States.

The tests were highly controversial, with environmental groups fearing that the Cannikin explosion, in particular, would cause severe earthquakes and tsunamis.

Amchitka is no longer used for nuclear testing.

Amchitka is still [October 2020] monitored for the leakage of radioactive materials.

In the News

Fiction cross-reference

Nonfiction cross-reference

  • Cannikin (nonfiction)
  • Project Vela (nonfiction) - element of Project Vela conducted jointly by the United States Department of Energy and the Advanced Research Projects Agency. Its purpose was to develop seismic methods for detecting underground nuclear testing, and it involved many experts from academia, the sponsoring military agencies and the Atomic Energy Commission.
  • Vela Uniform (nonfiction) - project undertaken by the United States Department of Defense[1] to develop and implement methods to monitor compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty. This treaty banned the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater, effectively meaning nuclear tests were only to be permitted underground.

External links

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