Trinity Site 70th anniversary: May 7 TNT blast set stage for historic detonation
It was a small blast by atomic bomb standards. But the detonation of 108 tons of TNT at Trinity Site in Southern New Mexico paved the way for what would happen July 16, 1945, when the world entered the nuclear age. The Fat Man bomb, fueled by a 14-pound plutonium core, had a yield 200 times larger than the “little explosion” two months earlier.
This little-known event, not even reported by people living in the area, provided the terminology we have used for 70 years in trying to communicate how much energy is released in a nuclear explosion.
About 800 yards south of ground zero at Trinity Site, construction engineers built a heavy-duty, 20-foot wooden platform. It had to be sturdy because they stacked the TNT on top of it. Then, on May 7, 1945, well before dawn, the neatly stacked boxes of TNT were detonated.
The blast was the idea of Ken Bainbridge, the test director at Trinity Site, who thought it made sense to perform a dry run to make sure they had it right before committing to the actual detonation.
Read more: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/trinity-site-th-anniversary-may-tnt-blast-set-stage-for/article_156b3f4a-1c59-5c97-b33b-4e1946c3d0a7.html