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Trinity (nuclear test)
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===Jumbo=== [[File:Trinity - Jumbo brought to site.jpg|thumb|right|Jumbo arrives at the site]] Responsibility for the design of a containment vessel for an unsuccessful explosion, known as "Jumbo", was assigned to Robert W. Henderson and Roy W. Carlson of the Los Alamos Laboratory's X-2A Section. The bomb would be placed into the heart of Jumbo, and if the bomb's detonation was unsuccessful the walls of Jumbo would not be breached, making it possible to recover the bomb's plutonium. [[Hans Bethe]], Victor Weisskopf, and [[Joseph O. Hirschfelder]] made the initial calculations, followed by a more detailed analysis by Henderson and Carlson.{{sfn|Bainbridge|1976|p=4}} They drew up specifications for a steel sphere {{convert|13|to|15|feet|2}} in diameter, weighing {{convert|150|ST|t}} and capable of handling a pressure of {{convert|50000|psi}}. After consulting with the steel companies and the railroads, Carlson produced a scaled-back cylindrical design that would be much easier to manufacture. Carlson identified a company that normally made boilers for the Navy, [[Babcock & Wilcox]]; they had made something similar and were willing to attempt its manufacture.{{sfn|Hoddeson|Henriksen|Meade|Westfall|1993|pp=366β367}} As delivered in May 1945,{{sfn|Bainbridge|1975|p=43}} Jumbo was {{convert|10|feet|2}} in diameter and {{convert|25|feet|2}} long with walls {{convert|14|in|0}} thick, and weighed {{convert|214|ST|LT t}}.<ref name="Jumbo">{{cite web |url=http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/trinity/jumbo.shtml |title=Jumbo |publisher=atomicarchive.com |access-date=August 23, 2014 |archive-date=October 10, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010230118/http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/trinity/jumbo.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Moving Jumbo"/> A special train brought it from the Babcock & Wilcox plant in [[Barberton, Ohio]], to the siding at Pope, where it was loaded on a large trailer and towed {{convert|25|miles}} across the desert by [[crawler tractor]]s.{{sfn|Jones|1985|p=512}} At the time, it was the heaviest item ever shipped by rail.<ref name="Moving Jumbo">{{cite web |title=Moving "Jumbo" at the Trinity Test Site |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |url=http://www.brookings.edu/about/projects/archive/nucweapons/jumbo |access-date=February 7, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530124159/http://www.brookings.edu/about/projects/archive/nucweapons/jumbo |archive-date=May 30, 2013 }}</ref> [[File:Trinity - Jumbo after test.jpg|thumb|left|Jumbo was not used for its originally intended purpose in the Trinity test but was in a tower some distance from the bomb when it went off]] For many of the Los Alamos scientists, Jumbo was "the physical manifestation of the lowest point in the Laboratory's hopes for the success of an implosion bomb."{{sfn|Bainbridge|1975|p=43}} By the time it arrived, the reactors at the [[Hanford Engineer Works]] produced plutonium in quantity, and Oppenheimer was confident that there would be enough for a second test.{{sfn|Hoddeson|Henriksen|Meade|Westfall|1993|pp=366β367}} The use of Jumbo would interfere with the gathering of data on the explosion, the primary objective of the test.{{sfn|Jones|1985|p=512}} An explosion of more than {{convert|500|tonTNT}} would vaporize the steel and make it difficult to measure the thermal effects. Even {{convert|100|tonTNT}} would send fragments flying, presenting a hazard to personnel and measuring equipment.{{sfn|Bainbridge|1976|p=5}} It was therefore decided not to use it.{{sfn|Jones|1985|p=512}} Instead, it was hoisted up a steel tower {{convert|800|yards|0}} from the explosion, where it could be used for a subsequent test.{{sfn|Hoddeson|Henriksen|Meade|Westfall|1993|pp=366β367}} In the end, Jumbo survived the explosion, although its tower did not.<ref name="Jumbo"/> Jumbo was destroyed on April 16, 1946, when an Army ordnance team detonated eight 500 lb bombs in the bottom of the steel container. Jumbo, with its steel banding around the middle, had been designed to contain the 5,000 lbs of high explosive in the atomic bomb while it was suspended in the center of the vessel. With the conventional bombs placed in the bottom of Jumbo, the resulting blast sent fragments flying in all directions as far as three quarters of a mile.{{sfn|Fraikor|2021|p=100}} Who authorized the destruction of Jumbo remains controversial.{{sfn|Fraikor|2021|pp=102β106}} The rusting skeleton of Jumbo sits in the parking lot at the Trinity site on the White Sands Missile Range, where it was moved in 1979.<ref>{{cite web |title=Trinity History |publisher=White Sands Missile Range |url=https://www.wsmr.army.mil/Trinity/Pages/TrinityHistory.aspx |access-date=September 26, 2021 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220316003531/https://www.wsmr.army.mil/Trinity/Pages/TrinityHistory.aspx |archive-date=March 16, 2022 }}</ref> The development team also considered other methods of recovering active material in the event of a dud explosion. One idea was to cover it with a cone of sand. Another was to suspend the bomb in a tank of water. As with Jumbo, it was decided not to proceed with these means of containment. The {{nowrap|CM-10}} (Chemistry and Metallurgy) group at Los Alamos also studied how the active material could be chemically recovered after a contained or failed explosion.{{sfn|Bainbridge|1976|p=5}}
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