Operation Crosstie was a series of 48

nuclear test Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of their explosion. Nuclear testing is a sensitive political issue. Governments have often performed tests to signal strength. Bec ...

s conducted by the United States in 1967–1968 at the

Nevada Test Site The Nevada National Security Sites (N2S2 or NNSS), popularized as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a reservation of the United States Department of Energy located in the southeastern portion of Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of ...

. These tests followed the ''

Operation Latchkey Operation Latchkey was a series of 38 nuclear tests conducted by the United States in 1966–1967 at the Nevada Test Site. These tests followed the '' Operation Flintlock'' series and preceded the ''Operation Crosstie Operation Crosstie wa ...

'' series and preceded the '' Operation Bowline'' series.

Nuclear tests

Gasbuggy

The blast designated Gasbuggy involved an underground detonation, intended to stimulate production of

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

by cracking the rock in the underground formation of its deposit. The test proceeded as expected, but not only did the production not increase as much as expected, but the customers also refused to buy gas contaminated with traces of radioisotopes.

Faultless

The Faultless test was a calibration test conducted in a mine cavity 3,200 feet beneath the Hot Creek Valley near Tonopah, Nevada, with a yield of around 1 megaton. This test was conducted to see if the land was fit for testing a 5 megaton thermonuclear warhead for the Spartan missile. The test failed because of the large degree of faulting that resulted in the area around the test. It was decided that the land was unfit for multi-megaton nuclear tests, so a similar calibration test was conducted at

Amchitka Island Amchitka (; ;) is a volcanic, tectonically unstable and uninhabited island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska. It is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The island, with a land area of rou ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, in the fall of 1969 during

Operation Mandrel The United States's Mandrel nuclear test series was a group of 52 nuclear tests conducted in 1969–1970. These tests followed the '' Operation Bowline'' series and preceded the '' Operation Emery'' series. References {{US Nuclear Test ...

. The 8 foot diameter steel pipe that was used to place the bomb remains at the test site. The top of the pipe was originally flush with the surface; however, the ground sank by nine feet following the explosion. A plaque is mounted on the exposed pipe to commemorate the event. Project Faultless Plaque

Buggy

Buggy was a

Plowshare In agriculture, a plowshare (Differences between American and British spellings, US) or ploughshare (Differences between American and British spellings, UK; ) is a component of a plow (or plough). It is the cutting or leading edge, preceding t ...

test designed to excavate a channel. It was a simultaneous detonation of 5 devices, placed apart and below the surface that resulted in
channel
wide, 900 feet long, and deep . Or 65 feet deep and 254 feet wide, according to declassified U.S. film. The

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

conducted a similar

salvo A salvo is the simultaneous discharge of artillery or firearms including the firing of guns either to hit a target or to perform a salute. As a tactic in warfare, the intent is to cripple an enemy in many blows at once and prevent them from f ...

-test to investigate the use of nuclear explosions in the construction of the

Pechora–Kama Canal The Pechora–Kama Canal (), or sometimes the Kama–Pechora Canal, was a proposed canal intended to link the basin of the Pechora River in the north of European Russia with the basin of the Kama, a tributary of the Volga. Completion of this projec ...

project. On March 23, 1971, three simultaneously detonated 15 kiloton underground nuclear charges were exploded in the Taiga test.

Rickey

Rickey was the first Los Alamos test to use a television PINEX (pin-hole neutron experiment) system. A fluor was imaged using a newtonian telescope which was split for imaging by two cameras by a beam splitter. The instrument package containing the television system was protected from neutrons and gamma rays by kinking the path between it and the nuclear device and by placing baffles along the optical path pipe.

List of nuclear tests

The United States's Crosstie nuclear test series was a group of 48

s conducted in 1967–1968. These tests A bomb test may be a salvo test, defined as two or more explosions "where a period of time between successive individual explosions does not exceed 5 seconds and where the burial points of all explosive devices can be connected by segments of straight lines, each of them connecting two burial points and does not exceed 40 kilometers in length". followed the ''

'' series and preceded the '' Operation Bowline'' series.

References

{{US Nuclear Tests Explosions in 1967 Explosions in 1968 Crosstie 1967 in military history 1968 in military history 1967 in Nevada 1968 in Nevada 1967 in the environment 1968 in the environment