In the summer of 1992, I was stationed at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) located 65 miles North of Las Vegas with members of my team.
Figure 1: Nevada Test Site
I was in charge of a major test that I had conceived and conceptually designed. We were at NTS because that was the location where mission critical hardware could be tested with the radiation output of a nuclear device. Ever since the atmospheric test ban of 1993 these nuclear devices were detonated underground in a series of tunnels cut into the side of a mountain.
Figure 2: Tunnel complex at NTS
Our job was to test a critical piece of space hardware that had never been tested before. My team and I had developed a test article that included design features that we had developed to allow it to pass such a test. Passing the test meant that the test article survived the radiation and continued to perform its function after being exposed to the radiation. This was the basic US requirement for all critical hardware so that we could survive a surprise attack from the former Soviet Union and be able to retaliate, what the press called Nuclear Armageddon.
I was living at basic quarters on the test site. My two sons were grown and were out of the house by this time in my career. My wife and I had to content ourselves with daily phone calls since my home in Virginia was nearly 3000 miles away.
I was also supported at the site by a team of more than 75 people executing all the design specifics and putting the hardware into place at a location a mile and a half underground along a tunnel carved into the face of a mesa at the site. For reasons of national security, I cannot tell you about the details of the test, but I can discuss the generalities.
Things were going well. Kenny was the manager of our Las Vegas office that provided the personnel and equipment to monitor the test configuration and the output parameters of the nuclear device. Sam from our San Diego office managed the deployment of the test article and supporting test equipment. David from our Albuquerque office had designed the test article support equipment. Ben from our Huntsville office was in charge of the design of the test article with support from major military hardware manufacturers. Finally, John from my office in Mclean provided all the detailed computational support needed to interpret the data.
They all reported status during our stand-up meeting that occurred daily after the daily dry-run of equipment in which the hardware was all triggered as if the nuclear device had exploded.
Me, “Kenny, how is instrumentation coming along?”
Kenny, “You are fielding more oscilloscopes in this test than I have ever fielded before. They are all working and triggering in the dry run.”
Me, “It seems that things with the test chamber are OK?”
Sam, “Yes, the dummy test article is in the test chamber, and the vacuum and liquid helium are attached.”
Me, “Is our support system still in trouble David?”
David, “ We are up and running with the vacuum system. The liquid helium needs further attention. We found another bug in the supporting electronics. One of the modules needs to be replaced. We are on it.”
Me, “We can’t test without a test article. Where the hell is it Ben?”
Ben, “The test article is one week away from completion.”
Me, “We still need to set the scopes John.”
John, “Most of the calculations are completed so that we will be able to set the scopes.”
Me, “Great work guys. The test is not until the early September. We are in good shape. We can all take off this long weekend and relax for a change. I for one can’t wait to get off the test site. See you next Monday.” I was really feeling good. This project had very high-level attention back at the Pentagon.
Monday came. Kenny came running to me with a wild look in his eyes.
Me, “ What’s going on Kenny? You seem stressed.”
Kenny , “Over the weekend some rats chewed through the wires at the power plant on the top of the mesa. The power went down, and nobody was here to fix it.”
Me, “Nobody here to fix it. What happened then?”
Kenny, “ There was no power to our vacuum or liquid helium systems. The test chamber imploded. It has to be fixed or we won’t make the test date.”
Me, “Ouch. We are in deep shit. My career may be at an end.”
My DOD sponsors were very upset. They sent an august team of critics from Washington led by one of my perennial critics Gus to determine exactly what happened and why I had fucked up. I knew that they were discussing who my replacement would be.
We met at the field station on the test site a few days later.
Figure 3: NTS field station
The CEO of our company sent Larry to support me. Larry ran the office of quality control for the company.
Larry stood right up and took charge. He addressed the review committee, “Gentlemen. Take a look at the quality program that we execute on all the mission critical programs. Then take a look at the log of the actual application of this formalism to the present program. It is excruciatingly detailed and covers almost every conceivable bad luck thing that can happen. Like all such programs, it has provisions to handle the situation when one thing goes wrong. It also has the requirement that the system performance degrade gracefully when 2 things go wrong.”
Gus, “What two things went wrong?”
Larry, “The primary power system went down for the whole weekend, and the back-up power system that NTS provides was not designed to last a whole weekend. It went down also.”
Gus,” Yes, but why did the test chamber implode? Ian fucked up, right?”
Larry, “ Yes, a third thing went wrong. There is no quality control methodology in the world that can handle three things going wrong. The technician tightening the bolts on the chamber misread the specifications and did not tighten them enough. Ian’s procedures would have caught this mistake, but not in the real time in which it happened. The final check of the bolts was scheduled after the prime test article was inserted. This was scheduled for a week or so from now when the prime test article showed up.”
Despite Gus’s attacks on me, the committee decided to let me continue to manage the project. After all, our backup plans included the fact that we already had a second chamber ready to be shipped from Albuquerque.
In the next six weeks, we got the new chamber in place with the prime test object. We also finalized all supporting equipment and instrumentation and were ready for the scheduled event in September .
As we sat in the control center many miles away from the event, we learned that the Senate had passed a nuclear test ban moratorium the week before, and the House had decided that morning to go forward with finalizing that bill with the intention of sending it to President Busch for signature.
The test went off in spite of this. It was named HUNTERS TROPHY. It was a smashing success. My reputation was now cast in gold.
It turns out that this was the last nuclear test that DOD performed. The fall of the Berlin wall in 1991 began the end of the era of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).
Comments