Operation Hardtack I
The operation Hardtack was a series of American nuclear tests in 1958 in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific and on the Nevada Test Site. It is often divided according to their various test locations in Hardtack Hardtack I and II.
- 2.1 The individual tests of the Hardtack II series
Hardtack I
While Hardtack I were detonated 35 nuclear bombs. This corresponded to the number of the hitherto total in the Pacific ignited nuclear bombs. The tests were developed by the Joint Task Force 7 performed ( JTF 7) in collaboration with the Atomic Energy Commission and the Nuclear Defence Agency. Essentially Hardtack I consisted of three parts:
The JTF 7 was the successor to the Joint Task Force 132, which carried out the tests of the Operation Ivy. It was founded in 1953 to carry out nuclear tests in the Pacific.
Between 1977 and 1980 three islands of Eniwetok Atoll, were freed from nuclear waste and this poured into the crater of Hardtack Cactus. Although the crater was then covered with concrete, is to this day still to measure ionizing radiation, especially because of the plutonium.
The individual tests of Hardtack I series
Hardtack fig was the last nuclear test on Eniwetok Atoll.
Hardtack Umbrella, underwater ignition at Eniwetok in the Pacific
Hardtack II
After the end of Hardtack I tests in the Pacific nuclear tests the operation Hardtack II were carried out on the nuclear test site of the Nevada Test Site. At the same time found in the southern Atlantic secret tests the operation Argus instead. While Hardtack II tests were conducted with low-yield in the range of a few kilotons TNT equivalent.