Gerboise Blanche
| Gerboise Blanche | |
|---|---|
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| Information | |
| Country | France France |
| Test series | Reggane series |
| Test site | Reggane, French Algeria |
| Coordinates | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found. |
| Date | 1 April 1960 |
| Test type | Atmospheric |
| Test altitude | 0 m |
| Device type | A-bomb |
| Yield | 3 kt (12.5 TJ)[a] |
| Test chronology | |
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Gerboise Blanche (or Opération Gerboise Blanche) was the codename of the second French nuclear test. It was conducted by the Nuclear Experiments Operational Group (GOEN), a unit of the Joint Special Weapons Command[1] on 1 April 1960, at the Saharan Military Experiments Centre near Reggane, French Algeria in the Sahara desert region of Tanezrouft, during the Algerian War.[2][3]
Name
[edit | edit source]Gerboise is the French word for jerboa, a desert rodent found in the Sahara. The color white (Blanche) adjuncted is said to come from the second colour of the French Flag.[4]
Test
[edit | edit source]Explosion
[edit | edit source]Gerboise Blanche operation was carried out 3 months after the success of the first test, Gerboise Bleue. Unlike the first attempt and the two others that were to come, this bomb was placed a few kilometres from ground zero, and detonated on a concrete pad.[5] This was a voluntary act of the authorities as they feared the usual test site would have been too contaminated for the next tests.[6]
On 1 April 1960 at 6:17:00 UTC,[7] the 1,250 kg plutonium filled fission bomb was detonated with a yield of 3 kt.[8] The explosion created a crater that was later filled in.[9] The Ministry of the Armed Forces subsequently asserted that the test paved the way for the miniaturization of this type of weapon, and that the lower yield was voluntary.[10] A 2001 document of the National Assembly confirmed this assertion while claiming that the bomb was an "emergency device" that would have been used had Gerboise Bleue failed.[6]
Fallout
[edit | edit source]Initial monitoring reported a radiation dose of 100 rad/h at 3 km from ground zero one hour after the blast, and 0.3 rad/h at 45 km. Monitoring at Khartoum, around 3,400 km from Reggane, reported 10−10 Ci/m3.[8]
In 2005, the Algerian government asked for a study to assess the radioactivity of former nuclear testing sites. The International Atomic Energy Agency published the report suggesting that Gerboise Blanche explosion site had the highest Caesium-137 surface levels of the four tests, with a residual surface activity between 0.02 and 3.0 MBq/m2 over a surface area of about 1 km2.[11] The same report showed that while the fallout of the 3 other tests of the Reggane series were contained in circular areas of less than 1 km in diameter, the fallout of Gerboise blanche expanded south-west over a distance of more than 6 km.[12]
See also
[edit | edit source]- Agate (French first underground A-bomb)
- Canopus (French first atmospheric H-bomb)
- Force de Frappe
- List of states with nuclear weapons
- Nuclear weapons and France
- History of nuclear weapons
Notes
[edit | edit source]- ^ Physicist Pierre Billaud reported a yield of 4 kt (16.7 TJ). See External links.
References
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