Editing Trinity (nuclear test) (section)

{{Short description|First detonation of a nuclear weapon}}
{{redirect|The Gadget|the novel by Paul Zindel|The Gadget (novel){{!}}''The Gadget'' (novel)|other uses|Gadget (disambiguation)}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox nuclear weapons test
| name = Trinity
| image = Trinity shot color.jpg
| image_size =
| picture_description = The only well-exposed color photograph of the detonation of the Gadget, taken by [[Jack Aeby]]
| country = United States
| test_site = Trinity Site, [[New Mexico]]
| date = {{Start date and age|1945|07|16|p=yes|br=yes}}
| test_type = [[Nuclear weapons testing#Types|Atmospheric]]
| device_type = [[Plutonium]] [[implosion-type nuclear weapon|implosion]] [[nuclear fission|fission]]
| yield = {{cvt|25|ktonTNT|lk=in}}
| next_test = [[Operation Crossroads]]
}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Trinity Site
| nrhp_type = hd
| nrhp_type2 = nhld
| nocat = yes
| designated_other1 = New Mexico State Register
| designated_other1_date = December 20, 1968
| designated_other1_number = [https://web.archive.org/web/20141110122215/http://www.nmhistoricpreservation.org/assets/files/registers/2012%20Report_%20Section%203_%20Arranged%20by%20Number.pdf 30]
| designated_other1_num_position = bottom
| image = Trinity Site Obelisk National Historic Landmark.jpg
| caption = Trinity Site obelisk
| coordinates = {{Wikidatacoord|Q207342|type:event_region:US-NM|display=inline,title}}
| nearest_city= [[Bingham, New Mexico]]
| locmapin = New Mexico#USA
| area = {{cvt|36480|acre}}
| built = {{Start date|1945}}
| designated_nrhp_type2 = December 21, 1965<ref name="nhlsum">{{cite web |title=National Historic Landmarks Survey, New Mexico |publisher=National Park Service |url=https://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/nm/NM.pdf |access-date=December 23, 2016 |archive-date=November 18, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118103928/https://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/nm/NM.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
| added = October 15, 1966
| sigdate1_label = Date of Nuclear Explosion
| sigdate1 = July 16, 1945
| refnum = 66000493<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a }}</ref>
}}

'''Trinity''' was the first detonation of a [[nuclear weapon]], conducted by the [[United States Army]] at 5:29&nbsp;a.m. MWT{{efn|name=MWT|[[War Time|Mountain War Time (MWT)]] was six hours behind [[Greenwich Mean Time|Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)]], the predecessor of [[Coordinated Universal Time|Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)]].}} (11:29:21 [[Greenwich Mean Time|GMT]]) on July 16, 1945, as part of the [[Manhattan Project]]. The test was of an [[implosion-type nuclear weapon|implosion-design]] [[plutonium]] bomb, or "gadget", of the same design as the [[Fat Man]] bomb later [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|detonated over Nagasaki]], Japan, on August 9, 1945. Concerns about whether the complex Fat Man design would work led to a decision to conduct the first [[nuclear weapons testing|nuclear test]]. The code name "Trinity" was assigned by [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]], the director of the [[Los Alamos Laboratory]], possibly inspired by the poetry of [[John Donne]].

The test, both planned and directed by [[Kenneth Bainbridge]], was conducted in the [[Jornada del Muerto]] desert about {{convert|35|mi}} southeast of [[Socorro, New Mexico]], on what was the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range (renamed the [[White Sands Proving Ground]] just before the test). The only structures originally in the immediate vicinity were the [[McDonald Ranch House]] and its ancillary buildings, which scientists used as a laboratory for testing bomb components. Fears of a [[fizzle (nuclear explosion)|fizzle]] prompted construction of "Jumbo", a steel containment vessel that could contain the plutonium, allowing it to be recovered; but ultimately Jumbo was not used in the test. On May 7, 1945, a rehearsal was conducted, during which {{convert|108|ST|t}} of high explosive spiked with radioactive isotopes was detonated.

Some 425 people were present on the weekend of the Trinity test. In addition to Bainbridge and Oppenheimer, observers included [[Vannevar Bush]], [[James Chadwick]], [[James B. Conant]], [[Thomas Farrell (general)|Thomas Farrell]], [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Hans Bethe]], [[Richard Feynman]], [[Isidor Isaac Rabi]], [[Leslie Groves]], [[Frank Oppenheimer]], [[G. I. Taylor|Geoffrey Taylor]], [[Richard Tolman]], [[Edward Teller]], and [[John von Neumann]]. The Trinity bomb released the explosive energy of {{convert|25|ktonTNT|lk=on}} ± {{convert|2|ktonTNT|lk=on}}, and a large cloud of [[fallout]]. Thousands of people lived closer to the test than would have been allowed under guidelines adopted for subsequent tests, but no one living near the test was evacuated before or afterward.

The test site was declared a [[National Historic Landmark]] district in 1965 and listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] the following year.