Castle Bravo

Matt Reilly

Intro

• The largest nuclear yield in any nuclear test in the United States ever.

• The U.S. was not prepared for the effects of the bomb.

• This bomb was one of the lightest at 23,500 lb, using an aluminum casing instead of a steel.

• The fallout spread traces of radioactive material as far as Australia, India and Japan, and even the US and parts of Europe

The Location

• The bomb was detonated on an artificial island on a reef called Bikini Atoll.

• The blast was so powerful that about 6 hours after the explosion, ash began to sprinkle the Japanese fishing vessel Lucky Dragon which was 90 miles downwind of the burst point

When It Happened

• 18:45:00.0 28 February 1954 (Greenwich Mean Time)06:45:00.0 1 March 1954 (local)

• Only eight minutes after the test, the cloud had reached its full dimensions with a diameter of 100 km and a cloud rising above 55,000 feet (16.5 km)

• The nuclear fallout was worse than predicted because of the misinterpreted wind currents.

Data

• This bomb was the most powerful ever that the united states detonated.

• It was estimated to only give off as much as 4-8 Mt. It actually released 15 Mt of energy.

• This was the first "dry" or solid fuel (lithium deuteride fueled) H-Bomb that the U.S. tested.

Why It Happened

• The U.S. was in an arms race with the soviet union during the cold war.

Damage

• The nuclear fallout destroyed the testing island and all the surrounding islands were covered by radiation and many were affected.

• One of the sailors on the lucky dragon 4 died causing a diplomatic crisis with Japan

Aftermath

• The United States had to abandon all other testing on this island and had to test them remotely on a barge.

• All islands had to be abandoned and most still are

Prevention

• We decided that these bombs were to powerful so we wanted to make sure that they were never used again.