UFIBLASSEFIEIJ mm- f2 0R CHANGED TO hm BY AUTHORITY OF BY CLASSIFICATION CANCELLED HISTORY or THE AIR FORCE TECHNICAL APPLICATIONS CENTER U 1 July - 31 December 1964 3-9 Prepared by International Affairs Branch Plans and Programs Division Operations and Plans Directorate Air Force Technical Applications Center 39 xa er DATE Ap oved By -FRANK GRIFFITH Colonel USAF Chief AF Tachnical Applications Center DOS Plans and Operations AIR FORCE TECHNICAL APPLICATIONS CENTER HEADQUARTERS UNITED STAIES AIR FORCE EXCLUDED FROM AUTOMATIC 1 2 REGRADING 000 010 5200 10 -I Dtor1968' 32450 7 w p L 0053 31 8 67 WASSIFIEU PAGES 11 - NONRESPONSIVE 45m- NONRESPONSIVE The most important event occurring during this period was the detection of the first Commist Chinese nuclear test conducted on 16 1964 NONRESPONSIVE 22450 m PAGES 1 - 8 NONRESPONSIVE r- r HEBRE- CHAPTER 3' FOREIGN NUCLEAR TESTS NONRESPONSIVE Communist China exploded its first nuclear devise on 16 October near Lake Lop' dr in Sinkiang Province The test was detected by 7 acoustic and 11 electrome netic stations and was codfirned by the collection of nucleer debris The height of the burst was estimated to be less than 3 000 feet end the yield approximately 19 kt 22450 PAGE 10 NONRESPONS IVE r 4m- NONRESPONSIVE ll PULSE The electromagnetic pulse network had an almost perfect record in detecting and estimating the time of the first Comunist Chinese nuclear test on 16 October 1964 Eleven of the 13 electromagnetic pulse stations detected the detonation The estimate of time of detonation 13 1 Greenwich mean time 16 October obtained from the electromagnetic pulse equipment recordings chame the official time of the event Yield estimates 19 kt from these recordings also contributed to the final official estimate of the yield NONRESPONSIVE With-the-exception of the Communist Chinese event none were attributable to atmospheric nuclear detonations In analyzing the data from these alerts the standard yield curve was revised to reflect a continuum without inflection points on log-log scales This curve was used on the Communist Chinese event and theyield derived has reported in the final scientific summary sheet 13 1 NONRESPONS IVE PAGES 12 - 13 NONRESPONSIVE 45m - NONRESPONSIVE ACOUSTIC During this period AFTRC evaluated acoustic dath from 17 alerts including the Communist Chinese nuglear'test NONRESPONSIVE 22450 Id -GEHH- Seven acoustic stations detected the first Communist Chinese nuclear 15 test on 16 October The acoustic net provided the initial detection and alerting and in conjunction with the electromagnetic pulse net provided estimates of the location and yield of the event NONRESPONSIVE PAGES 16 - 24 NONRESPONSIVE b l b l b 3 b l b 3 AI RBDREE SAMPLING Special TOE DANCER operations were conducted subsequent to the first Communist Chinese nuclear test on 16 October 1964 3 The Air Weather Service provided C-130 WB-SO and WB-57 aircraft from Yokota AB Japan Fheelus AB Libya Eielson AFB Alaska and McClellan AFB California for this operation Additional support was provided by SAC B-52's from Castle AFB California and WU-Z's from Davis-Monthan AFB Arizona and Eielson AFB Alaska Eighty-five sorties were flown between 16 October and 5 December compiling a total of 721 flying hours Nuclear debris from the test was picked up on over 30 individual sorties by aircraft from Yokota AB The best collections were obtained 1 day after the event at 29 000 to 30 000 feet in the Japan area Several papers on each of the first 2 contacts collected in 30 mdnutes or less of filtering Other good collections feet on the following 3 or 4 days Subsequent analysis for the mass spectro- metric analysis from the McClellan Central Laboratory and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory confirmed this finding Debris from this event was also collected from 3 See Debris Collection Special Page 26 22450 if 13 SPECIAL vecron ovmnonsIl ltll I WHEELUS AB 53 o n-v I I'C fl 0 II I in TYPICAL DEBRIS PATTERNS AND DEPLOYMENTS - 44 27 the surface to 30 000 feet in the Alaska and West Coast area of the US and along the East Coast of the US on 23 and 24 October at 14 000 feet NONRESPONS IVE PAGES 28 - 29 NONRESPONSIVE 45m- b 1 The sampling unit Alaske collected good samples of debris 30 froz'i the first Communist Chinese test conducted on 16 October Samples hm 22650 This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu