Partial List of US Scientific Nuclear Tests

I'm posting this as a separate post, prior to posting Part 3 of The Philosopher's Bomb, because there's a very common misconception about how many nuclear shots the Plowshare program fired off.   Most lists of Plowshare tests do not include most of these tests, because they were officially sponsored by the AEC's Division of Military Applications as military tests, and the incorporated experiment was only an add-on.   Nonetheless, if we ignore them - which almost all histories of the Plowshare program do - we're missing an important part of the story.



Note, by the way, that this is only a partial list.   First, there were some tests, as discussed in The Philosopher's Bomb, that I was not able to identify.   Second, although the Plowshare scientific applications program ended with PLIERS in 1969, other, later tests did incorporate science add-ons as part of other programs.   There was a project in the 1970s, codenamed HALITE/CENTURION, that used nuclear explosions as X-ray sources to test concepts for inertial confinement fusion.   There was another project in the late 70s and 80s that used nuclear explosions to determine the physical properties of metals under extreme pressure.   There was yet another project in the late 50s that used high-yield atmospheric tests to inject radioactive tracers into the upper atmosphere, to map the air currents up there.   And probably more I don't know about.   I hope to eventually investigate and write up those projects as well, but, until then, this list will remain incomplete.

Test	Date	Yield	Sponsor	Purpose	Flux	Lab	Cites
BUTTERNUT	05/11/58	81 kT	DMA	SHEs	???	LASL	[Kn]
???	May '58	???	DMA	Physics	N/A	LASL	[CD]
QUAY	10/10/58	79 kT	DMA	Physics	N/A	LASL	[CD]
GNOME	12/10/61	3.1 kT	DPNE	Multiple	N/A	LRL
???	1962	???	DMA	Physics	N/A	LRL	[Alb]
ANACOSTIA	11/27/62	5.2 kT	DPNE	SHEs	2.5-4	LRL	[Be2]
KAWEAH	02/21/63	3 kT	DPNE	SHEs	???	LRL	[GURC]
GERBIL	03/29/63	Low	DMA	SHEs	???	LASL	[GURC]
KENNEBEC	06/25/63	Low	DPNE	SHEs	4.6-6	LRL	[Be2]
ANCHOVY	11/14/63	Low	DMA	SHEs	2-3	LASL	[Be2]
GREYS	11/22/63	Inter.	DMA	SHEs	???	LRL	[GURC]
OCONTO	01/23/64	10.5 kT	DMA	SHEs	???	LRL	[GURC]
PIPEFISH	04/29/64	< 20 kT	DMA	Physics	N/A	LASL	[HDB]
BYE	07/16/64	20-200 kT	DMA	SHEs	???	LRL	[GURC]
PAR	10/09/64	38 kT	DPNE	SHEs	11	LRL	[Be2]
BARBEL	10/16/64	< 20 kT	DMA	SHEs	11	LASL	[Be2]
PARROT	12/16/64	1.3 kT	DMA	Physics	N/A	LASL	[GURC]
SCAUP	05/14/65	< 20 kT	DMA	SHEs	???	LASL	[GURC]
TWEED	05/21/65	< 20 kT	DMA	SHEs	12	LRL	[Be2]
PETREL	06/11/65	1.3 kT	DMA	Physics	N/A	LASL	[GURC]
DURYEA	04/14/66	70 kT	DMA	SHEs	???	LRL	[GURC]
CYCLAMEN	05/05/66	12 kT	DMA	SHEs	18	LASL	[Be2]
KANKAKEE	06/15/66	20-200 kT	DMA	SHEs	12	LRL	[Be2]
VULCAN	06/25/66	25 kT	DPNE	SHEs	12	LRL	[Be2]
PERSIMMON	02/23/67	< 20 kT	DMA	Physics	N/A	LASL	[GURC]
POMMARD	03/14/68	1.5 kT	DMA	Physics	N/A	LASL	[Di]
HUTCH	07/16/69	20-200 kT	DMA	SHEs	35	LRL	[Be2]
PLIERS	08/27/69	<20 kT	DMA	Physics	N/A	LASL	[Di]

DMA: Division of Military Applications.DPNE: Division of Peaceful Nuclear Explosives.
LASL: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, now Los Alamos National Laboratory.
LRL: Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
SHEs: SuperHeavy Elements.

Citations can be found here.