Sedan (nuclear test)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Storax Sedan explosion
Enlarge
Storax Sedan explosion

Storax Sedan was a nuclear test conducted at the Nevada Test Site at 37.177048° N 116.046653° W by the United States on July 6, 1962 as part of Operation Plowshare program to investigate the use of nuclear weapons for mining, cratering, and other civilian purposes.

The blast had a yield of 104 kilotons (435 terajoules) and displaced more than 11 million tonnes (12 million short tons) of soil and resulted in a radioactive cloud that rose to an altitude of 3.7 km (12,000 feet). The radioactive dust plume headed northeast and then east towards the Mississippi River. It created a crater 100 m (320 feet) deep and has a diameter of about 390 m (1,280 feet). It is about 21 km (13 miles) away from Area 51.

[edit] Sedan Crater

The Sedan crater
Enlarge
The Sedan crater

The crater from the test is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[edit] Misunderstanding in 2005

Sedan from the air
Enlarge
Sedan from the air

On March 2, 2005 Ellen Tauscher, a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing the state of California, gave congressional testimony on the containment of nuclear testing debris, using the Sedan test as an example of one which produced a considerable amount of radioactive fallout. A reporter mistook the word Sedan for the Sudan, an east African nation, and this mistake was placed into the Congressional Record. Within days of this error, the international community took notice. Sudanese officials responded to this stating that "the Sudanese government takes this issue seriously and with extreme importance," and China's Xinhua General News Service even went so far as to publish an article claiming that the Sudanese government had blamed the U.S. for raising cancer rates among the Sudanese people. Despite the U.S. embassy in Khartoum issuing a statement regarding the error, the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, stated that they would continue investigating. BBC.

[edit] External links



National Register of Historic Places in Nevada
Carson City
Churchill County
Clark County
Douglas County
Elko County
Esmeralda County
Eureka County
Humboldt County
Lander County
Lincoln County
Lyon County
Mineral County
Nye County
Pershing County
Storey County
Washoe County
White Pine County
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/e/d/Sedan_%28nuclear_test%29.html"
In other languages