Operation Crossroads ABLE, 1946


Crossroads Able, a 23-kiloton air-deployed nuclear weapon detonated on July 1, 1946. This bomb used, and consumed, the infamous Demon core that took the lives of two scientists in two separate criticality accidents. Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. It was the first test of a nuclear weapon after the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945, and the first detonation of any nuclear device following the Fat Man detonation on August 9, 1945. Its purpose was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on naval ships. Crossroads consisted of two detonations, each with a yield of 23 kilotons of TNT. Able was detonated at an altitude of 520 feet on July 1, 1946; Baker was detonated 90 feet underwater on July 25, 1946.


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