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Show Air Force plans explosive test at Three Peaks this afternoon ' A unique test blast in con-1 nection with experiments be-1 ing made near Three Peaks west of Cedar City by the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at 1 Kirtland Air Force Base, will be set off today, Thursday, May 29, at 2:30 p. m. The announcement of the proposed testing blast was made by Capt. Donald Gage, test director, and by First Lieutenant Robert Vergnolle, operations officer of the Cedar City project. The explosion will be visible from the Cedar City area, but the public has also been invited in-vited to view the blast from the proximity of the observa- tion point that will be set up at close range for the public. Capt. Gage indicated that the observation point would be an access' road taking off from Utah Highway 254 Approximately Ap-proximately one quarter of a mile east of the Iron Springs Mine. The route will be well posted, he advised. Those in charge further asked that those planning to view the explosion ex-plosion from close range should be at the site well in advance of the proposed 2:30 p. m. detonation time. Capt. Gage Indicated that the test explosion would be a unique one in the realm of testing programs conducted by the weapons laboratory. The test will combine two sets of experiments through the me- 1 thod of delayed detonation of a second blast following the f initial explosion. The combined test is the ! first to be undertaken in the two-year history of the testing test-ing program, he Indicated. It will combine a test series on High Explosive Simulated Technique (HEST) and Direct Induced Explosive Technique (DIET). The delay between the two explosions wil be only a twentieth twen-tieth of a second but will record re-cord different types of shock waves on various structures and instrumentation placed in the granite formation at the test site. The initial explosion will contain 310,000 lineal feet of detonator cord which represents repre-sents approximately 10 tons of explosives. The explosive bed is covered with 10,000 tons of earth-surcharge to direct the blast lnt.Oj the test bed where a whole series of me. suring devices will record data from the shock waves.' The overburden is expected to be blasted 500 feet into the air above the test bed. The second explosion "Will be of milder proportion and will be detonated approximately 35 feet deep, and will contain only two and two-tenths tons of explosives. The tests have several objectives, ob-jectives, Capt. Gage- pointed out. The first is the development develop-ment of simulation technology. technol-ogy. Secondly, the test will record re-cord the ground shock results and measure them, and data will also be assembled on structural response to the shock waves. The observation point will be approximately 2350 feet from the test bed and SO to 100 feet above the level of the bed, affording excellent visibility visi-bility as well as safety. v Technicians from the wca-' ' s pons laboratory will record data from 250 active measure, ments structures that have . been assembled for the testing test-ing program, and data will immediately be flown to Kirtland Kirt-land Air Force Base where this evening it will be initially processed pro-cessed through the computer center. Some results of the test are expected as early as 7 p. m. this evening. Although somewhat similar tests have been undertaken in other areas, this is the first of this type in granite formations, forma-tions, Capt. Gage pointed out. He stated that it was important impor-tant to establish various properties prop-erties relaive to simulated nu. clear explosions in all types of geological formations. |