Large image view: Amchitka's nuclear legacy
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United States Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. James A. Schlesinger, Chairman. Operation Cannikin, November 6, 1971. As a test of the warhead for the Spartan missile of the Safeguard Ballistic Missile Defense program, Operation Cannikin was detonated to measure the yield of the device, measure the x-ray flux and spectrum, and assure deployment of a reliable design. The Cannikin test of a nuclear device of under five megatons was detonated at a depth of 5,875 feet in volcanic breccia within a mined 52-foot diameter spherical cavity.
No excavating, drilling and/or removal of materials is permitted without U.S. Government approval, between the ground surface and minus 6,200 feet below mean sea level and out to a horizontal distance of 3,000 feet from the surface ground zero location, N5,704,186 meters, E646,322 meters. Any reentry into drill holes within this horizontal restricted area is prohibited.
Credit: photo courtesy Mark Johnson, UAF.
Filename: Johnson-Cannikin-Ground-Zero.JPG
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