July 16, 1945 - The Trinity Site, on the Jornada del Muerto, a remote corner of the New Mexico Desert. "Gadget," the product of years of effort by the brilliant scientific minds of The Manhattan Project, was suspended from a 100-foot steel tower. At 0510 hours Mountain War Time, the countdown began as the scientists and a handful of observers anxiously awaited the result.
0529:45 Mountain War Time - Conventional explosives compressed the plutonium ball, the inward force smashing the plutonium from all sides, setting off a chain reaction, splitting atoms, releasing neutrons and tremendous energy. The escaping neutrons strike and split more atoms, releasing more neutrons and energy, this chain reaction splitting billions of atoms, all occurring in a millionth of a second.
The blast was felt 160 miles away. Shock waves from the blast broke windows one hundred miles away. Mrs. Rowena Baca, a child at the time, some 20 miles away, recalls her bedroom turning a bright red. Witnesses recall sound bouncing off the mountains, creating an echoing effect.
Hans Boethe, one of the contributing physicists, wrote, "It looked like a giant magnesium flare which kept on for what seemed a whole minute but was actually one or two seconds.
Another scientist recalled, "We had a lot of flood lights on for taking movies of the control panel. When the bomb went off, the lights were drowned out by the big light coming through the open door in the back."
One of the Army MPs recounted "The heat was like opening up an oven door, even at ten miles." Another scientist observed, "Suddenly, not only was there a bright light but where we were, ten miles away, there was the heat of the sun on our faces ...Then, only minutes later, the real sun rose and again you felt the same heat to the face from the sunrise. So we saw two sunrises."
Although the bomb was detonated as an air blast 100 feet above the ground, it created a crater about 4 feet deep and 240 feet in diameter.
The temperature of the fireball was calculated at 14,710 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat from the blast vaporized the steel tower and melted the desert sand, turning it into a green glassy substance called Trinitite. Later, most of the Trinitite was removed, but some small pieces remain on the site today.
After the blast, Army officials stated that a munitions storage area at the Alamogordo Bombing Range accidentally exploded. It wasn't until the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6 that President Truman announced the bomb. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered on Aug. 14, 1945. The war was over, but not controversy over continued development and testing of nuclear weapons, or casualties resulting from postwar testing.
In 1952, the Atomic Energy Commission let a contract to clean up the Trinity Site. A few years later, a small group from Tularosa visited the site on the anniversary date, conducting a prayer vigil for peace. Eventually, fences were built and the site opened to the public on selected dates in April and October. This, rather than on the anniversary date because of the extreme heat on the Jornada del Muerto.
During my 11 years on the faculty of New Mexico State University, I had not visited the site. But my recent October trip coincided with the open date.
Before daylight on Oct. 6, I left Mesilla for the 90-minute drive to the athletic field of Tularosa High School where a caravan of vehicles was assembled. Army MPs led the caravan of more than 100 vehicles across 80 miles of the White Sands Missile Range to the Trinity Site.
From the parking lot of the site, it is a quarter mile walk to Ground Zero, marked by a monument. A portion of footing remains of the vaporized tower. Evidence of the crater from the air blast remains.
Visitors are cautioned that Ground Zero remains radioactive even after 67 years. One hour at Ground Zero exposes the visitor to one half mrem of radiation, compared to 6 mrems from a chest X-Ray, 110 mrems from a CATscan, and 2 mrems from a coast-to-coast commercial airline flight.
As there were a lot of people milling around the monument at Ground Zero, I didn't tarry long. I was more interested in the historical photos and descriptions displayed on the fences marking the perimeter of the site.
The adobe ranch house, originally built by Franz Schmidt, and eventually used for final assembly of the bomb (see my column of Nov. 2) was abandoned after 1945. The Army stabilized it in 1982, preventing further deterioration and, with the U.S. Dept. of Energy, provided funds for the National Park Service to restore it in 1984. The "assembly room" in the ranch house contains interesting historical photographs. The adjacent concrete water tank used by the scientists and support staff to cool off during the hot summer remains.
Before convoying back to Tularosa, I visited briefly with the Commanding General of White Sands Missile Range, Gwen Bingham, who was on the site that day.
The bomb brought a quick end to WWII. While costing many lives, it saved the lives of others, both Japanese and Allied, including readers of this column who were slated for invasion of Japan's home islands. Neither the individual American soldier, nor Japanese soldier or civilian, could individually control their destiny - all were subject to sweeping historical forces beyond control of a single individual.
To prevent the end of civilization through nuclear destruction will require collective action and cooperation. So far, we have been lucky that cool heads have prevailed. It remains to be seen whether the human race is able to come to terms with such massive power for self-destruction.
A visit to the Trinity Site is grim reminder of that imperative.
- John Waelti's column appears every Friday in the Times. He can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
0529:45 Mountain War Time - Conventional explosives compressed the plutonium ball, the inward force smashing the plutonium from all sides, setting off a chain reaction, splitting atoms, releasing neutrons and tremendous energy. The escaping neutrons strike and split more atoms, releasing more neutrons and energy, this chain reaction splitting billions of atoms, all occurring in a millionth of a second.
The blast was felt 160 miles away. Shock waves from the blast broke windows one hundred miles away. Mrs. Rowena Baca, a child at the time, some 20 miles away, recalls her bedroom turning a bright red. Witnesses recall sound bouncing off the mountains, creating an echoing effect.
Hans Boethe, one of the contributing physicists, wrote, "It looked like a giant magnesium flare which kept on for what seemed a whole minute but was actually one or two seconds.
Another scientist recalled, "We had a lot of flood lights on for taking movies of the control panel. When the bomb went off, the lights were drowned out by the big light coming through the open door in the back."
One of the Army MPs recounted "The heat was like opening up an oven door, even at ten miles." Another scientist observed, "Suddenly, not only was there a bright light but where we were, ten miles away, there was the heat of the sun on our faces ...Then, only minutes later, the real sun rose and again you felt the same heat to the face from the sunrise. So we saw two sunrises."
Although the bomb was detonated as an air blast 100 feet above the ground, it created a crater about 4 feet deep and 240 feet in diameter.
The temperature of the fireball was calculated at 14,710 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat from the blast vaporized the steel tower and melted the desert sand, turning it into a green glassy substance called Trinitite. Later, most of the Trinitite was removed, but some small pieces remain on the site today.
After the blast, Army officials stated that a munitions storage area at the Alamogordo Bombing Range accidentally exploded. It wasn't until the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6 that President Truman announced the bomb. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered on Aug. 14, 1945. The war was over, but not controversy over continued development and testing of nuclear weapons, or casualties resulting from postwar testing.
In 1952, the Atomic Energy Commission let a contract to clean up the Trinity Site. A few years later, a small group from Tularosa visited the site on the anniversary date, conducting a prayer vigil for peace. Eventually, fences were built and the site opened to the public on selected dates in April and October. This, rather than on the anniversary date because of the extreme heat on the Jornada del Muerto.
During my 11 years on the faculty of New Mexico State University, I had not visited the site. But my recent October trip coincided with the open date.
Before daylight on Oct. 6, I left Mesilla for the 90-minute drive to the athletic field of Tularosa High School where a caravan of vehicles was assembled. Army MPs led the caravan of more than 100 vehicles across 80 miles of the White Sands Missile Range to the Trinity Site.
From the parking lot of the site, it is a quarter mile walk to Ground Zero, marked by a monument. A portion of footing remains of the vaporized tower. Evidence of the crater from the air blast remains.
Visitors are cautioned that Ground Zero remains radioactive even after 67 years. One hour at Ground Zero exposes the visitor to one half mrem of radiation, compared to 6 mrems from a chest X-Ray, 110 mrems from a CATscan, and 2 mrems from a coast-to-coast commercial airline flight.
As there were a lot of people milling around the monument at Ground Zero, I didn't tarry long. I was more interested in the historical photos and descriptions displayed on the fences marking the perimeter of the site.
The adobe ranch house, originally built by Franz Schmidt, and eventually used for final assembly of the bomb (see my column of Nov. 2) was abandoned after 1945. The Army stabilized it in 1982, preventing further deterioration and, with the U.S. Dept. of Energy, provided funds for the National Park Service to restore it in 1984. The "assembly room" in the ranch house contains interesting historical photographs. The adjacent concrete water tank used by the scientists and support staff to cool off during the hot summer remains.
Before convoying back to Tularosa, I visited briefly with the Commanding General of White Sands Missile Range, Gwen Bingham, who was on the site that day.
The bomb brought a quick end to WWII. While costing many lives, it saved the lives of others, both Japanese and Allied, including readers of this column who were slated for invasion of Japan's home islands. Neither the individual American soldier, nor Japanese soldier or civilian, could individually control their destiny - all were subject to sweeping historical forces beyond control of a single individual.
To prevent the end of civilization through nuclear destruction will require collective action and cooperation. So far, we have been lucky that cool heads have prevailed. It remains to be seen whether the human race is able to come to terms with such massive power for self-destruction.
A visit to the Trinity Site is grim reminder of that imperative.
- John Waelti's column appears every Friday in the Times. He can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net.
