"This test took place in the spring of 1951. It was carried out by the 8500 members of Joint Task Force Three; men drawn from the Atomic Energy Commission, its contractors, military, industrial, and educational laboratories, and from the Army, Navy, and Air Force."<br /><br />Operation GREENHOUSE was conducted in April and May of 1951.<br /><br />This test series consisted of four weapons related test shots from the 300-foot level on towers on the Enewetak Atoll, Pacific Ocean, two of which greatly aided the pursuit of a hydrogen, or thermonuclear device.<br /><br />Carried out by the Atomic Energy Commission, the shots were:<br /><br />Dog, April 7, 81 kilotons<br />Easy, April 20, 47 kilotons<br />George, May 8, 225 kilotons<br />Item, May 24, 45.5 kilotons<br /><br />The George experiment proved an thermonuclear bomb was possible and led to a crash development program of the "Super." The fusion contribution was roughly 25 kilotons equivalent yield.<br /><br />Item was the first test of the boosting design principle, which involved increasing the yield of a fission implosion weapon. The effect often approximately doubled the yield for the same amount of fission fuel, effectively revolutionizing efficiency in weight versus yield of each warhead, excluding a dirty casing effects option of fast fission of uranium 238-lined weapon casings.
