Operation Teapot
1955 - Nevada Test Site
This series of fourteen shots proof tested a broad variety of fission devices with low to moderate yields. As a group these devices combined several innovations - some previously tested, some introduced during this test series - to create a new pattern of fission device that would dominate the design of all later weapons. These devices used new compact, efficient, light weight spherical implosion systems; beryllium tampers; hollow cores; deuterium-tritium boosting; and the use of neutron pulse tubes as initiators to create light, compact, efficient, and reliable fission explosive systems.
These devices were tested for a broad variety of tactical weapon applications, including air defense (AD) and anti-submarine warfare (ASW). Several new primaries were tested for a new generation of lighter and more compact (Class "D") thermonuclear weapons to be fired in 1956 during Operation Redwing.
UCRL (University of California Radiation Laboratory, now the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - LLNL) had its first successful test shots after two and a half years of trying. UCRL demonstrated linear implosion - a non-lensed implosion approach used in artillery shells and other applications where very small diameter systems are required.
Approximately 8,000 DOD personnel participated in the Desert Rock VI exercise which was intended to familiarize troops with the capabilities of nuclear weapons, and the conditions of atomic combat.
LANL test shots were named after flying insects, fruits, and vegetables. UCRL test shots were named after inventors and San Francisco streets. DOD shot names were abbreviations or abbreviation mnemonics.
Source: nuclearweaponarchive.org
