Operation Teapot

Operation Teapot
Teapot MET (Military Effects Test)
Information
Country	United States
Test site	Nevada Test Site
Period	February - May 1955
Number of tests	14
Device type	Fission
Max. yield	43 kilotons of TNT (180 TJ)
Navigation
Previous test	Operation Castle
Next test	Operation Wigwam

Video of shot MET (Military Effects Test), fired on 15 April 1955, with a yield of 22 kilotons.

Operation Teapot was a series of fourteen nuclear test explosions conducted at the Nevada Test Site in the first half of 1955.

During shot "Wasp", ground forces took part in Exercise Desert Rock VI which included an armored task force "Razor" moving to within 900 meters of ground zero, under the still-forming mushroom cloud.^[1][2]

The Civil Defense "Apple-2" shot on 5 May 1955 was intended to test various building construction types (nicknamed as "Survival Town") in a nuclear blast. A few of the buildings still stand at Area 1, Nevada Test Site. A documentary film was produced showing the buildings being damaged by the blast; in the film, the test is called "Operation Cue".^[3][4] Stock footage from the nuclear test was used in the 1983 TV movie The Day After during the explosion sequence.^{[citation needed]}

An augmented test unit from the United States Marine Corps participated in Shot "Bee" during the March 1955 exercises.

In the notable MET (Military Effects Test, shown in all images at right), a bomb core of uranium-233 (a rarely used fissile isotope that is the product of thorium-232 neutron absorption in breeder reactors) was shown to produce a yield comparable to the "Fat Man" plutonium weapon exploded over Nagasaki.^[5]

Teapot "MET" (Military Effects Test) detonated on a 400-foot tower over Frenchman Flat on 15 April 1955, with a yield of 22 KT. This bomb is notable as the first use of uranium-233 (rather than uranium-235) in its core.

This series preceded Wigwam and followed Operation Castle. The shots of this series were:

Teapot Test Blasts

Name	Date	Location	Yield	Note
Wasp	18 February 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 7)	1.2 kilotons
Moth	22 February 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 3)	2 kilotons
Tesla	1 March 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 9)	7 kilotons
Turk	7 March 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 2)	43 kilotons
Hornet	12 March 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 3)	4 kilotons
Bee	22 March 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 7)	8 kilotons
Ess	23 March 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 10)	1.2 kilotons
Apple-1	29 March 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 4)	14 kilotons	Failed
Wasp Prime	29 March 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 7)	3.2 kilotons
Ha	6 April 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 1)	3.2 kilotons
Post	9 April 1955	Nevada Test Site(Area 9)	2 kilotons
MET	15 April 1955	Nevada Test Site	22 kilotons	Uranium-233/plutonium bomb core
Apple-2	5 May 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 1)	29 kilotons	Rerun of Apple-1
Zucchini	15 May 1955	Nevada Test Site (Area 7)	28 kilotons

References

1. ^ Defense Technical Information Center. Exercise Desert Rock VI. Operation Order Number 1. February, 1955.
2. ^ Defense Technical Information Center. Exercise Desert Rock VI. Operation Order Number 2. February 1955.
3. ^ University of Maryland. Record Group 304: Photographs of Operation Cue. (1955)
4. ^ http://www.archive.org/details/Operatio1964
5. ^ "Operation Teapot". Nuclear Weapon Archive. 15 October 1997. http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Teapot.html. Retrieved 2008-12-09. 

• Chuck Hansen, U. S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History (Arlington: AeroFax, 1988)
• The Nuclear Weapons Archive [1]
• United States Nuclear Tests - DOE/NV--209-REV 15

External links

• Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) press release about Operation Teapot

Coordinates: 37°08′10″N 116°04′07″W / 37.13611°N 116.06861°W / 37.13611; -116.06861