On this date in 1957, the U.S. successfully completed the first fully contained underground nuclear explosion, meaning that no radioactive fallout escaped into the atmosphere, in an explosion detected by seismologists around the world.
The 1-7 kiloton bomb’s detonation, known as the Rainier event, was one of 29 nuclear weapons safety tests conducted underground at the U.S. government’s Nevada Test Site, as part of the oddly named Operation Plumbbob, between May and October of that year.
This all happened, of course, in the context of the Cold War. Luckily for humanity, in 1963 the U.S. signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere, underwater and outer space—but not underground. The U.S. conducted its last underground nuclear test (also at the Nevada site) in 1992. In 1996, it signed another treaty banning nuclear detonations in all environments.
It appears that despite no fallout entering the atmosphere in the Rainier event, there were still serious long-term consequences when considering the whole of Operation Plumbbob for both communities and servicemen stationed near the test site, including significantly elevated rates of leukemia. For more on the Rainier event, read here and here.
And a bonus: Ironically, in 1979 on the same date, a group called Musicians United for Safe Energy held a “No Nukes” concert at Madison Square Garden in New York. Among the performers were Gil Scott-Heron, James Taylor and Bruce Springsteen. Read more about Springsteen’s perspective on the concert here.
