Atomic Testing in Mississippi: Project Dribble and the Quest for Nuclear Weapons Treaty Verification in the Cold War Era

Introduction: I Had No Idea

1 Introduction: I Had No Idea At ground-zero, some wag left a Confederate flag and a sign, “The South will rise again!” This it did by about 10 cm amidst a cloud of dust. Observers five km away heard a “whoomph” and felt a shock comparable to jumping off a street curb. However, the surface ground roll did not die down as quickly as expected, and later homeowners as far away as Hattiesburg asked to be reimbursed for cracked plaster. —Bates, Gaskell, and Rice, Geophysics in the Affairs of Man, 204 On September 22, 1964, after years of careful planning and frustration, a nuclear device was detonated below the wooded countryside in south-central Mississippi. Unleashing a force roughly one-third that of the bomb that destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, the explosion produced seismic waves that traveled outward from the subterranean shot point. Nearby stations and those from around the world monitored these disturbances. A little more than two years later a second, much smaller, device test followed the first; it hardly registered at all and, unlike its predecessor, caused no damage to structures in the vicinity of the test site. Even today, an outside researcher must approach this topic delicately. As I experienced firsthand, people in the region are friendly and open to conversation, but when the atomic tests are mentioned, the air feels a little chillier. It is something that residents have strong feelings about, and many do not want to discuss it with outsiders. This book began as a research paper for a seminar conducted by Dr. Wayne Flynt on the history of the New South at Auburn University. It then became the subject of my doctoral dissertation, itself a product of several years of research and numerous trips to Hattiesburg and Purvis, the closest cities to the test site. During this time, I had the opportu- 2 • Atomic Testing in Mississippi nity to talk casually to a wide range of individuals. Most notably, there was a general sense of misunderstanding about what really had happened . Some thought that the explosions in the massive subterranean salt plug—known as a “salt dome”—were weapons tests. To be sure, the program had a military component, but it was not intended to test weaponry. Indeed, the reason for the two atomic tests (and later gas explosions) was quite the opposite. They were part of a growing effort to control the worldwide development of nuclear weapons. They helped devise the systems used today to detect nuclear tests conducted by nations that conceal their destructive aspirations from public scrutiny. But in researching the background of the atomic tests, I found that this story quickly became far more complex than I had originally expected. It changed from a study confined to nuclear-test and test-detection technology to one of geology, southern industry, and aspirations to bring high technology to the region. The original title of this book was “Southern Devices: Geology, Industry, and Atomic Testing in Mississippi’s Piney Woods,” indicating the multilayered intersection of three seemingly disparate entities that converged in the Piney Woods region in the 1960s. There are two groups of people regarding the history of these tests: those who have heard about them or remember reading about them, and those who have no knowledge of them at all. Most of those familiar with the tests either live in the area near the test site, have relatives who live near the site, or were part of the test operations. Those unfamiliar with the tests generally fall into one of three subgroups upon learning of them: those who feel that the tests might somehow explain what was wrong with Mississippi in the 1960s; those who think that it was a good idea; and those who respond, “I had no idea.” Among several of the scientists and personnel, who came from places other than Mississippi , there was a joke concerning the tests that if there was a civil rights riot, the plan was to nuke Hattiesburg. Obviously, most southerners do not find this humorous. But to others around the country during the 1960s, it was a common reaction when it was announced that atomic testing would take place in that embattled state. After all, Mississippi had become a symbol for all the evils that the Civil War and Reconstruction had failed to fix. Its governor, Ross Barnett, was an unrepentant segregationist who stood alongside Orval Faubus of Arkansas, George [3.139.72.14] Project MUSE...