In this test deuterium-tritium (D-T) gas was injected into the enriched uranium core of a nuclear fission bomb.

The device was code-named "Booster" in its development stages, a name for the mechanism coined by Edward Teller in September 1947.

According to the researcher Chuck Hansen, it was mentioned in official U.S. Atomic Energy Commission documents as early as 1947.

The main problems in development were making modifications to the fission core to accept the gas correctly without reducing its own efficiency.

Even as late as 1954, no boosted weapon had entered into the nuclear-weapons stockpile, and the only use for the Greenhouse Item nuclear test had been for its research results.