ABSTRACT
The facts of geography, meteorology and topography meant that Norway, and especially eastern Finnmark, was highly exposed to radioactive fallout, while its proximity to the Soviet Union rendered it particularly suitable for stations to register Russian nuclear activity. Long before the training of the operators for CROCK POT was completed, and before even the equipment for the station had arrived in Norway, alarm signals about an impending resumption of Soviet nuclear tests sounded, not only in Washington, but also in London. As recorded by the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS), the first Soviet nuclear test was registered on 2 February, 1962 in the Semipalatinsk area. At POLAR REIN work still proceeded in the important new field of electromagnetic pulse technique, recording radiated energy in the Very Low Frequency (VLF) spectrum from nuclear detonations at very high altitudes. The permanent POLAR REIN facility, called the Central Recording Station (CRS), was finally established in the spring of 1963.
