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Show Official Report Reveals Power Of Atomic Bombs It is highly probable that the public generally has not correctly correct-ly appraised the atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll. Prior to the explosion, there were many irresponsible ir-responsible predictions that exaggerated ex-aggerated the effects of the new weapon and, consequently, when the bomb failed to sink all of the ships in the area, the public experienced a "let-down" and was over-impressed by the suggestion sug-gestion of some writers that the lirst test was a "dud." From the report of the Army-Navy Army-Navy Chiefs of Staff, it now seems possible to secure a much more accurate estimate of the effectiveness of the atomic bomb. In the first test, as the reader will recall, the bomb was dropped from an airplane to test its destructiveness in an aerial explosion. Only one ship was within 1,000 feet of the surface point over which the bomb exploded, ex-ploded, and about twenty ships were within half a mile. All of these were badly damaged, five sinking and others being so mauled that repairs would have taken twelve days just to get them under their own power. More signifant, we think, is the radiation intensity which accompanied ac-companied . the exploson. From a study of animals exposed to the lethal radiations, which arc gamma rays and neutrons, the experts conclude that all personnel per-sonnel normally stationed aboard the ships centered around the air burst, and many others at greater distances, would have been killed Those protected by steel, water or other dense materials, ma-terials, in the outlying target vessels, ves-sels, might have escaped but "vessels within a mile of an atomic bomb air burst would eventually become inoperative due to crew casualties." The second, or under -water explosion, ex-plosion, produced violence estimated esti-mated to be equal to 20,000 tons of TNT, lifted a column of water 2,200 feet, which observers estimate esti-mate contained 10,000,000 tons of water. The 26,000-ton battleship battle-ship Arkansas also appeared to be lifted, but this awaits confirmation. con-firmation. While the base of the huge column col-umn was surrounded by a wall of foaming water several hundred hund-red feet high; waves which were 30 to 100 feet in height about 1,000 feet from the center of the explosion, rapidly diminished in size as they proceded outward. ' While the second explosion did not produce an initial flash equal to that of the aerial burst, it produced radio-activity in the water estimated to equal that of many hundreds of tons of radium. rad-ium. Great quantities of this highly lethal radio-active water descended upon the target ships, constituting a hazard that made it unsafe for inspection parties, even after four days, to spend any useful length of time on those anchored at the center of the target area. The target ships did not present a normal anchorage anchor-age but were placed to obtain a maximum data, with twenty being within one-half mile and an additional twenty within the next half-mile. Pointing out that an atomic burst cannot be measured in terms of conventional explosives the committee says that the largest larg-est bomb of the past was effec-tive effec-tive within a radius of only a few hundred feet, but that the atomic bomb does its work in a distance. measured by thousands of feet. Conventional bombs must score a direct hit or near-miss to cause significant damage to battleships, but in the underwater underwat-er explosion at Bikini, a batte-ship batte-ship sank immediately although at a distance of well over 500 feet from the explosion The aid bomb did great damage dam-age to the super-structures of major ships within a half-mile radius, but only minor damage to their hulls; but no ship within a mile of either burst could have escaped "without some damage to itself and serious injury to a large number of its crew." Concerning the radiological phenomena accompanying the two bursts, the Joint Chiefs point out that in the case of the air-burst air-burst bomb, unprotected personnel person-nel within one mile would have suffered high casualties by intense in-tense neutron and gamma radiation, radia-tion, as well as by blast and heat. In the underwater explosion, the air-burst wave was fax less intensive, without any heat wave I of significance, but large masses of highly radio-active water were thrown onto the decks and into the hulls of vessels. "These contaminated con-taminated ships became radioactive radio-active stoves and would have burned all living things aboard them with invisible and painless but deadly radiation." |