Operation PLUMBBOB: Missile Studies with a Biological Target

Fourteen dogs were exposed on the lee side of planted gravel, of a concrete-block wall, and of glass mounted in the open and in houses to the environmental variations associated with full-scale nuclear detonations. Aluminum foil was used to protect the animals from thermal effects. The missile environment was monitored through the use of quantitative missile-trapping techniques. Pressure-time variations in the environment were also recorded. Biologic damage from overpressure and missiles was determined, and the associations between physical environmental factors and biologic response were noted and analyzed. The feasibility of utilizing missile data, along with other available information from the literature, as a means of quantitatively assessing biologic hazard was established by the close correspondence between observed and predicted dangerous wounds. This test provided full-scale validation of procedures and experiments worked out chiefly in the laboratory. Report on Operation Plumbbob, Nevada Test Site, Project 33.4, May-Oct 1957.