Gerboise Verte

Gerboise Verte
Gerboise Verte is located in Algeria
Gerboise Verte
Location of the test site
Information
CountryFrance France
Test seriesReggane series
Test siteReggane, French Algeria
Coordinates26°19′18″N 0°04′24″W / 26.32167°N 0.07333°W / 26.32167; -0.07333
Date25 April 1961; 63 years ago (1961-04-25)
Test typeAtmospheric
Test altitude50 m
Device typeA-bomb
Yield0.7–1.2 kt
Test chronology

Gerboise Verte (French pronunciation: [ʒɛʁbwaz vɛʁt]; lit. 'Green Jerboa') is the codename for a French nuclear test conducted on 25 April 1961. The test took place at the Centre Saharien d'Expérimentations Militaires (CSEM), 50 km south of Reggane, Algeria, then a French department and was designed as an atmospheric test. This was the fourth French nuclear atmospheric test, after Gerboise Bleue, Gerboise Blanche, and Gerboise Rouge.

History

In 1957, the French government decided to create experimental nuclear testing facilities in the Sahara. To this end, 108,000 square kilometers of land were allocated to the French Ministry of Defense for the first French nuclear experiments. The Centre Saharien d'Expérimentations Militaires (CSEM) for atmospheric testing was set up in Hamoudia some 50 km south of Reggane, an oasis in the south of the Grand Erg Occidental, 700 km from Colomb Béchar. The Centre d'Expérimentations Militaires des Oasis (CEMO) was later built in the Hoggar Mountains, near In Ekker, 150 km north of Tamanrasset, to carry out underground nuclear tests.[1] Between 1960 and 1966, France carried out 4 atmospheric tests and 13 underground tests in the Sahara.[2][3]

Synthesis of the aerial nuclear tests at the CSEM[3]

From 13 February 1960 to 25 April 1961, France carried out the Reggane series of four atmospheric tests, Gerboise Bleue, Gerboise Blanche, Gerboise Rouge, and Gerboise Verte, at the CSEM. For these tests, with the exception of the Gerboise Blanche, the explosive device to be tested was placed in a shelter at the top of a tower. For the Gerboise Blanche, the low-power explosive device was placed on a platform at ground level.

The French government hastily ordered the detonation of Gerboise Verte on 25 April 1961 immediately following the generals' putsch, so that the nuclear device could not fall into the hands of the putschists.[4][5][6][7][8]

Gerboise Verte was tested at 26°19′18″N 0°04′24″W / 26.32167°N 0.07333°W / 26.32167; -0.07333.[9] From a technical point of view, Gerboise Verte was a failure. Installed on a 50-meter tower, the bomb was designed with an estimated yield between 6 and 18 kilotons, but only had a yield of around 1 kiloton in the test.[7][10] Yves Rocard recounts that meteorological precautions were not taken, so much so that the bomb was tested in a sandstorm whose intensity masked even the light of the explosion.[11][12][13]

Like Gerboise Rouge, a joint exercise in the contaminated area, codenamed Garigliano was conducted to see how infantrymen and armored vehicles could protect themselves and then operate after the explosion.[14] Conscripts from the contingent played the role of guinea pigs.[15] Shortly after the test, they were sent to a contaminated zone to shelter in manholes 800 meters from the point of impact or in 4 × 4 trucks.[16][17]

An urban legend holds that the bomb was transported from a warehouse in the port of Algiers to Reggane (1,500 km) in a Citroën 2CV.[18] According to witnesses, only the plutonium charge traveled in a 2CV and only between Reggane and the CSEM the night preceding the explosion.[12][19]

The novelist Christophe Bataille published a story in January 2015 based on this nuclear test: L'Expérience (Grasset).[20]

The event is represented in episode 6 of season 2 of the series A Very Secret Service.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ Regnault, Jean-Marc (2003). "France's Search for Nuclear Test Sites, 1957–1963". The Journal of Military History. 67 (4): 1223–1248. doi:10.1353/jmh.2003.0326. ISSN 1543-7795. Archived from the original on 2 June 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  2. ^ Délégation à l’Information et à la Communication de la Défense (2007). "Dossier de présentation des essais nucléaires et leur suivi au Sahara" (PDF). www.defense.gouv.fr (in French). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 September 2007. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  3. ^ a b Revol, Henri; Bataille, Jean-Paul (3 April 2023). "Les incidences environnementales et sanitaires des essais nucléaires effectués par la France entre 1960 et 1996 et les éléments de comparaison avec les essais des autres puissances nucléaires". Sénat (in French). Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  4. ^ "France's Nuclear Weapons – Origin of the French". nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  5. ^ Bendjebbar, André (2022). Histoire secrète de la bombe atomique française [A secret history of the French atomic bomb]. Document (in French). Paris: le Cherche midi. ISBN 978-2-7491-7587-4.
  6. ^ Delmas, Jean (1989). "A la recherche des signes de la puissance : l'armée entre Algérie et bombe A 1956–1962". Relations Internationales (in French) (57): 77–87. ISSN 0335-2013. JSTOR 45344279. Archived from the original on 5 April 2024. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  7. ^ a b Tertrais, Bruno. "A "Nuclear Coup"? France, The Algerian War, And The April 1961 Nuclear Test" (PDF). In Sokolski, Henry D.; Tertrais, Bruno (eds.). Nuclear Weapons Security Crisis: What Does History Teach?. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 April 2024. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  8. ^ Billaud, Pierre (1 July 1989). "Quatrième expérience nucléaire française". Report of Pierre Billaud, engineer present at the test (in French). Archived from the original on 5 June 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  9. ^ "Radiological Conditions at the Former French Nuclear Test Sites in Algeria: Preliminary Assessment and Recommendations". Radiological Assessment Reports Series. STI/PUB/1215. Vienne: International Atomic Energy Agency: 7. 2005. ISBN 92-0-113304-9. Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  10. ^ Merchet, Jean-Dominique (16 February 2010). "Essais nucléaires: Gerboise verte, la bombe et le scoop qui font plouf... (actualisé)". Libération. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014.
  11. ^ Bruno Barrillot (1996). "Les essais nucléaires français 1960–1996: Conséquences sur l'environnement et la santé". Études du CDRPC. Lyon: Centre de documentation et de recherche sur la paix et les conflits: 48. ISBN 2-9508291-2-0.
  12. ^ a b Bruno Barrillot (2002). "L'héritage de la bombe: Sahara, Polynésie (1960–2002), les faits, les personnels, les populations". Études du CDRPC. Centre de documentation et de recherche sur la paix et les conflits: 34. ISBN 2-913374-15-8.
  13. ^ Bouveret, Patrice (2021). "Sous le sable, la radioactivité ! Contentieux nucléaire entre l'Algérie et la France". Recherches Internationales (in French). 119 (1): 41–56. doi:10.3406/rint.2021.1775. Archived from the original on 12 March 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  14. ^ Jean-Dominique Merchet (16 February 2010). "Essais nucléaires: Gerboise verte, la bombe et le scoop qui font plouf…". Libération. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  15. ^ Nicolas Jacquard (16 February 2010). "Quand les appelés du contingent servaient de cobayes". Le Parisien. Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  16. ^ "Des soldats délibérément exposés à des radiations". Le Journal du Pays basque. 17 February 2010. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  17. ^ "Le désert des cobayes: Cinquante ans après, les irradiés du Sahara algérien témoignent". Z: Revue itinérante d'enquête et de critique sociale (in French). 4 (2): 148–157. 31 October 2010. doi:10.3917/rz.004.0148. ISSN 2101-4787.
  18. ^ Stein, Peter; Feaver, Peter (1987). Assuring control of nuclear weapons: the evolution of permissive action links. Occasional Paper. Lanham, Md.: Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Univ. ISBN 978-0-8191-6336-3.
  19. ^ Guisnel, Jean; Tertrais, Bruno (2016), "Chapitre 3. Algérie, 1961: le putsch et la Bombe", Le Président et la Bombe, Hors collection (in French), Paris: Odile Jacob, pp. 47–56, ISBN 978-2-7381-3387-8, retrieved 5 April 2024
  20. ^ Bataille, Christophe (2015). L'expérience. Paris: Bernard Grasset. ISBN 978-2-246-81164-0.
  21. ^ "Au service de la France – Saison 2 (6/12) | ARTE". ARTE (in French). Archived from the original on 9 July 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2018.

Further reading