Operation Ivy


Operation Ivy was the eighth series of American nuclear tests, coming after Tumbler-Snapper and before Upshot–Knothole. The two explosions were staged in late 1952 at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Proving Ground in the Marshall Islands.

Background

On January 31, 1950, President Harry S. Truman ordered that the US should continue research into all forms of nuclear weapons, including the development of thermonuclear weapons. The Operation Ivy test series was the first to involve a hydrogen bomb rather than an atomic bomb, and was a key step towards Truman's goal. The bombs were prepared by the US Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Defense aboard naval vessels and were capable of being detonated remotely from the control ship USS Estes.
On August 13, 1952, Operation Texan, a full-scale rehearsal of Operation Ivy, was conducted at Bergstrom AFB, Texas. The rehearsal allowed crews of effects aircraft, drop aircraft, samplers, sampler controllers, and tankers to practice mission and communications procedures.

Tests

Mike

The first Ivy shot, codenamed Mike, was the first successful full-scale test of a multi-megaton thermonuclear weapon using the Teller-Ulam design. Unlike later thermonuclear weapons, Mike used deuterium as its fusion fuel, maintained as a liquid by an expensive and cumbersome cryogenic system. The bomb was detonated on November 1, 1952, on Elugelab Island yielding 10.4 megatons, almost 500 times the yield of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, resulting in the total vaporization of the island. Eight megatons of the yield were from fast fission of the uranium tamper, creating massive amounts of radioactive fallout. The detonation left an underwater crater 6,240 ft wide and 164 ft deep where Elugelab Island had been. Following this successful test, the Mike design was weaponized as the EC-16, but it was quickly abandoned for solid-fueled designs after the success of the Castle Bravo shot two years later.
The outcome of the test was reported to incoming president Eisenhower by Atomic Energy Commission Chairman, Gordon Dean, as follows: “The island of Elugelab is missing!”

Sampling mission

Four USAF F-84G Thunderjets equipped with filters were flown through the mushroom cloud's stem to collect radiochemical samples for analysis. "Red Flight" Leader Virgil K. Meroney of the nascent 1211th Test Squadron flew into the stem of the explosion first. In five minutes, he had gathered all the samples he could, and exited. Jimmy Priestly Robinson, age 28, a captain with the 561st Fighter-Day Squadron, was lost near the end of his mission. After re-emerging from the cloud, both he and his wingman, pilot Captain Bob Hagan, encountered difficulties picking up rendezvous and runway navigational beacons due to "electromagnetic after effects" of the detonation. Robinson hit an area of severe turbulence, entering a spin and barely retaining consciousness. He regained control of his plane at 20,000 feet, but the electromagnetic storm had disrupted his instruments. In rain and poor visibility, without working instruments, Hagan and Robinson were unable to find the KB-29 tanker aircraft to refuel. By the time they were successful in finding the signal, they were dangerously low on fuel, and before reaching the runway on Enewetak, both had depleted their reserves. Hagan made a successful dead-stick landing on the runway, but Robinson was too far out and attempted to ditch. His jet crashed and sank 3.5 miles short of the island. Robinson's plane flipped and his body was never found. Approximately a year after his disappearance, he was awarded a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross for his service. In 2002, a memorial stone at Virginia's Arlington National Cemetery was erected.
As a result of the collection of samples from the explosion by U.S. Air Force pilots, scientists found traces of the isotopes plutonium-246 and plutonium-244, and confirmed the existence of the predicted but undiscovered elements einsteinium and fermium.

King

The second test, King, fired the highest-yield nuclear fission weapon to date using only nuclear fission. This test used an unretarded free-fall bomb from a B-36 bomber. The bomber suffered minor heat and blast damage and safely returned to base. This "Super Oralloy Bomb" was intended as a backup to the earlier "Mike" test, if the fusion weapon had failed.

Aftermath

News of the operation leaked immediately. Despite being highly classified, two reporters contacted the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense less than three hours after the first Ivy shot with knowledge of the exact time the bomb was detonated.
Despite this, Operation Ivy was not officially acknowledged until April 1, 1954, with the release of a 28-minute film for television which included footage of the explosions. Many Americans expressed moral apprehension towards the creation and testing of the hydrogen bombs using in Operation Ivy. Following the release of the film, President Eisenhower attempted to calm the American public by claiming that the hydrogen bomb was "merely a dramatic symbol" of the nation's fears.

Operation Ivy in popular culture

In the video game Sid Meier's Civilization VI, Operation Ivy is a late game project that the player can construct at one of their cities. Completing the project allows the player to construct thermonuclear devices, which are more powerful than nuclear devices.
In the video game Sid Meier's Civilization VII, Operation Ivy is a late game project that the player can construct at one of their cities. Completing the project is the victory condition for the Military Legacy Path in the Modern Age.
There was an American punk rock band called Operation Ivy, named after the real-life nuclear tests.