A STORY TOO GOOD TO KILL - THE NUCLEAR-EXPLOSION IN SAN-FRANCISCO BAY

In July 1944, the U.S. Naval Magazine at Port Chicago, California, was devastated by the largest stateside explosion during World War II. On e ammunition ship disappeared and another was broken in two at this de pot near San Francisco; the Navy Court of inquiry found that all evide nce of the cause also disappeared. In 1982, however a journalist raise d the possibility that Port Chicago was destroyed by U.S. authorities in a deliberate, clandestine test of a nuclear weapon. This explanatio n advanced by a full year the ''official'' historical date of the firs t nuclear detonation (formerly accepted as the Los Alamos Laboratory's ''Trinity'' test). The reporter presented evidence that the explosion bore nuclear characteristics, that a gun-type weapon was designed by that date, and that sufficient uranium 235 had been purified for a Hir oshima-type bomb. This article examines that evidence critically, and refutes the conclusion that Port Chicago could have been a nuclear eve nt. The episode demonstrates insights into the sociology of publishing astounding knowledge claims, and suggests how historians might better assist journalists in evaluating such claims.