Operation Fishbowl - Continuation of The Fishbowl Series - Bluegill Triple Prime

Bluegill Triple Prime

The fourth attempt at the Bluegill test was launched on a Thor missile on 25 October 1962 (Johnston Island time). It resulted in a successful detonation of a submegaton nuclear warhead at about one minute before midnight, local time (the official Coordinated Universal Time was 0959 on 26 October 1962). Although it was officially reported only as being in the submegaton range (meaning more than 200 kilotons but less than one megaton), most observers of the U.S. nuclear testing programs believe that the nuclear yield was about 400 kilotons. One report by the U.S. federal government reported the test yield as 200 kilotons.

Since all of the Operation Fishbowl tests were planned to occur during the night, the potential for eyeburn, especially for permanent retinal damage, was an important consideration at all levels of planning. Much research went into the potential eyeburn problem. One of the official reports for the project stated that, for the altitudes planned for the Bluegill, Kingfish and Checkmate tests, "the thermal-pulse durations are of the same order of magnitude or shorter than the natural blink period which, for the average person, is about 150 milliseconds. Furthermore, the atmospheric attenuation is normally much less for a given distance than in the case of sea-level or near-sea-level explosions. Consequently, the eye-damage hazard is more severe."

Two cases of retinal damage did occur with military personnel on Johnston Island during the Bluegill Triple Prime test. Neither individual had his protective goggles in place at the instant of the detonation. One official report stated, "In the first case, acuity for central vision was 20/400 initially, but returned to 20/25 by six months. The second victim was less fortunate, as central vision did not improve beyond 20/60. The lesion diameters were 0.35 and 0.50 mm respectively. Both individuals noted immediate visual disturbances, but neither was incapacitated."

There had been concern that eyeburn problems might occur during the earlier Starfish Prime test, since the countdown was rebroadcast by radio stations in Hawaii, and many civilians would be watching the thermonuclear detonation as it occurred, but no such problems in Hawaii were reported.