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6. During a Long Shot
- University of Washington Press
- Chapter
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6 / DURING A LONG SHOT The year 1965 witnessed the corrosive evil of a nuclear bomb explosion on a National Wlldlife Refuge. Life, ecology, evolutionary processes: all essential features of the worldwide heritage of mankind to which a ... Refuge ... is devoted, were violated. -ROBERT D. JONES, JR., Manager, Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge At first glance, the successful negotiation ofthe Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1"\1963 might appear to have been largely the product of a panic reaction to the threat posed by the Cuban Missile Crisis. In reality, however, improved means of nuclear test detection, coupled with a genuine desire on the part of both the United States and Soviet Union to ease Cold War tensions , had paved the way to that achievement. By that time, it had become possible to measure airborne radioactive contamination by the use of sophisticated air sampling devices. Moreover, methods were also available to detect acoustic, hydrocoustic, and radio waves, plus electromagnetic flashes generated by nuclear blasts. Thus, the issue of "cheating" was essentially confined to underground testing, which left no telltale signs except for those recorded as seismic signals telegraphed though the earth's crust. These signals were, of course, indistinguishable from those created by natural events such as earthquakes.1 It therefore followed that in the event a reliable method of monitoring underground tests could be found, and, as a consequence, suspicions about cheating be eased if not eliminated entirely, a ban on all testing would become feasible. In the absence ofsuch technology, however, the arguments of preparedness advocates that United States underground tests should be accelerated , if only to counter suspected similar activities by the Soviets, were difficult to resist. Thus, underground nuclear testing, which increasingly became the focus of all nuclear weapons development by the early 19605, held the key to the fate of the arms race during the 1960s. Should the under5 $ DURING A LONG SHOT 56 ground testing of nuclear weapons remain undetectable, the United States and the Soviet Union would undoubtedly continue to build new and improved weapons of mass destruction. On the other hand, should such tests for accurate detection prove to be successful, the resulting climate ofgreater certainty might pave the way to an extension ofa test moratorium agreed to by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1958. Operation Long Shot is the story of the United States' determination to develop a reliable means of detecting such underground explosions and the unfortunate consequences of that determination for the Alaskan environment.2 Following the implementation of the Eisenhower/Khrushchev test moratorium . a group of technical experts convened in Geneva to determine the effectiveness of existing mechanisms to detect both underground and atmospheric test blasts that might take place in violation of the ban. By employing scientific instruments located throughout the world on land, ships, and aircraft, the Geneva panel concluded that underground explosions as small as five-thousand-tons yield could be distinguished from earthquakes.3 Closer analysis, however, suggested that these findings might have been too optimistic. Data derived from a subsequent United States test series, codenamed Operation Hardtack II, revealed that blasts below twenty thousand tons discharged seismic signals that were indistinguishable from those released by earthquakes. Additional discouraging news was received in the spring of1959 when a scientific panel headed by Robert F. Bacher concluded that even on-site inspectors might not be able to ascertain whether an underground test had taken place.4 These scientific setbacks, coupled with the lingering Soviet fear that onsite inspections would lead to spying and the United States' suspicions that the Soviets would undoubtedly cheat in the absence of reliable verification. made the achievement of a permanent test ban difficult. Nonetheless, the obvious importance of the ultimate goal persuaded the United States to continue its efforts to make all forms of nuclear testing verifiable. Codenamed Project Vela, this massive scientific project was headed by the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency.5 Its aim was threefold . To improve the monitoring of outer space, the Vela Hotel research program launched orbiting satellites to scan for neutron, gamma ray', and xray emissions. Vela Sierra searched for signs of high altitude radiation by using ground-based optical, radio frequency, and geophysical sensing instruments . Vela Uniform was assigned the task of improving seismic detec- [54.81.157.133] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:27 GMT) DURING A LONG SHOT 57 tion technology in order to differentiate definitively underground and underwater blasts from earthquakes...