NEVADA TEST SITE

An experimental device designed by Los Alamos was detonated at 5:40 a.m. PDT today from a 67-foot diameter balloon suspended at 750 feet above Yucca Flat. It was the fourteenth full-scale shot of the summer 1957 series.

The Franklin Prime shot shot was linked with the Franklin shot fired June 2 and had been added to the schedule since the start of Plumbbob. Its original readiness date was August 15, but it was delayed for technical reasons and rescheduled for this morning.

There were 19 experiments on the sequence timer. Twenty-two aircraft flew support missions. Approximately 500 military observers, here awaiting the Smoky shot, viewed the detonation from an area near the Control Point.

The mushroom top of the cloud rose to above 30,000 feet, with an ice cap forming above it. It is being blown north-northeast from Yucca at approximately 30 knots. There should be only very light fallout, if any, in the NTS region. The stem was drifting slowly somewhat west of north and should contain little radiation.

The blast was felt at the Control Point as a moderate push and heard as a dull sound followed by a brief rumbling. It was heard at Daggett, Inyokern and Bishop as ozonosphere-reflected rumbles and bangs.