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Nuclear Test Film - Operation Greenhouse
225 kt · Apr 8, 1951 · Enewetak Atoll · 15 Hiroshimas
Operation Greenhouse (1951, Enewetak) tested the physics that made the hydrogen bomb possible. The George shot used a fission bomb to ignite a small quantity of fusion fuel — the first time a thermonuclear reaction was achieved on Earth. The Item shot was the first boosted-fission weapon. The 225-kiloton series was twice as powerful as predicted.
Aftermath
George proved Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam's ideas were sound and cleared the path to Ivy Mike eighteen months later. The Enewetak islanders, still exiled on Ujelang, watched their home become the proving ground for the thermonuclear age.