Nuclear Test Location

USA / Mississippi / Purvis /
 nuclear testing area  Add category
 Upload a photo
Two nuclear detonations performed in a subterranean salt dome formation, as part of a 1960's Atomic Energy Commission Test. The first detonation, to form the cavity, code-named Salmon, took place in 1964 using a 5.3 kiloton bomb, placed at the bottom of a sealed 2,710-foot shaft.

The second nuclear blast, a relatively small 0.38 kilotons yield shot code-named Sterling, was exploded within Salmon's 110-foot diameter cavity more than two years later. Both were conducted underground.

www.atomicarchive.com/Almanac/Testing.shtml
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   31°8'28"N   89°34'21"W

Comments

  • It bears mentioning that these were the only 2 nuclear tests conducted east of the Mississippi River.
  • too bad the american people didn't have a say in this back then.....imagine the goverment decided to do this with out telling anyone till after it happened....well I guess all the people in all the countries we tested in didn't have much of a say either....
  • 1) Except for the Pacific Island tests, ALL US surface/subsurface test shots have been in US territory. 2)There was a test series of 13 shots run by the USSR in cooperation with the US, but it was at the Soviet test range in Kazakhstan in 1987-88..3) Local Mississippi residents WERE told before hand. 4) The cavity blasted out by Salmon was approx 110 feet in diameter but was approx 2,700 feet underground. Too bad you haven't kept up on history.
This article was last modified 15 years ago