(2 of 2)
Rattling the Snakes. But even as newsmen and observers from 13 nations (Russia had turned down an invitation to attend) were waiting for the countdown, saboteurs were at work; gophers chewed away the plastic coverings on electronic cables, putting a pair of radiation detectors out of action. At "zero" minute, the bomb exploded with more force than the experts had anticipated. The shock wave rolled through sandy desert and rock-strewn mountains, rattling dishes and Christmas tree ornaments and rippling the waters of Mirror Lake at Carlsbad Caverns 34 miles away. Physicist Edward Teller, viewing ground zero from a helicopter, thought he saw the ground heave 2 ft. (later measurements showed it to be better than 4 ft.). Watching a thin blanket of dust rise across the test site, a booted rancher yelped: "That shook up your rattlesnakes."
Somehow, the 2,400-lb. surface charge of TNT exploded prematurely, sending an ominous-looking mushroom cloud aloft. White-suited squads raced for the blast area. The first site-entry crew arrived on the scene in less than two minutes to take control of temperature and pressure gauges. "Request permission to enter the area," radioed their chief. "We're getting a buildup at the bottom of the tunnel," was the anxious answer from the control center. "You'll have to get out of there."
The blast had failed to close off the underground "teakettle." Radioactive vapor escaped from the site's elevator shaft. After flying into the billowing cloud of fallout in a helicopter to take measurements, a Public Health Service technical crew sent word that the exit road from the test site had to be shut down. Roadblocks were set up. Cars in the area, although not exposed to much radiation, were washed down as a precautionary measure.
Back at the test site, much scientific equipment was in disarray. It was feared that the neutron wheels at the bottom of the shaft had been damaged. Film in cameras used to photograph instruments near the elevator shaft was fogged by radiation. Chemical samplers over ground zero were severely damaged. Data cables running out of the shaft had somehow been cut.
At week's end, as radiation subsided, the scientists, who had not been altogether unprepared for the unexpected, were convinced that some 70% of the data could be salvaged. Probably the neutron wheels could be recovered. There still might be a cavity beneath the earth; the leak in the teakettle might yet be plugged with blastfurnace clay. Some radioactive isotopes could still be retrieved. Some data might be obtained from fogged camera film. A pair of drilling rigs had been moved over ground zero; two holes would be drilled—one to pump water into the teakettle, another to draw off steam.
Already the scientists are making detailed plans on two new Plowshare tests in Nevada—one to produce isotopes, the other to gather information on cratering, possibly for the digging of a canal. The hopeful dream that nuclear bombs may some day be used for the good of mankind is inching toward fulfillment.
*After the Biblical quotation in Isaiah 2:4: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks . . . neither shall they learn war any more."