Newly Declassified LLNL Atomic Bomb Testing

Hey everyone,

I was surprised to not see these films already making their rounds in these forums! I figured some of our more military savvy members might get a good kick out of this.

Just recently (within the past couple of days), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has started posting processed atomic bomb testing footage that was classified and decaying up until this point. From what I understand based on this article, members from the laboratory itself were mainly responsible for declassifying and processing this footage.

A team from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has worked for the last five years on finding, declassifying and preserving the films' content before it was lost forever.

Greg Spriggs, a weapon physicist at LLNL and head of the project said when they got their hands on the film they could smell it wasting away.

...

Mr Spriggs does not want nuclear weapons to be used and believes the key to ensuring that is to make sure the films act as an effective deterrent.

US releases secret footage of atom bomb tests

as it stands now, the posted footage from their youtube channel is unlisted unless you have the link for it. Well.. here are some of the most prominent links so far. personally, i came across this footage unexpectedly, late at night. needless to say some of these gave me a good dose of anxiety before bed.

"enjoy!"

a reply to: facedye

These videos are totally nuts! Remind me of the beginning of Godzilla (the one from 1998).

Thank you for sharing!!

PS Nowadays atomic b0mbs wouldn't be used, they would be nuclear-thermal, is that correct?

a reply to: facedye

Very cool! Thanks!! S & F!!!

What a totally different era.

Outstanding! Yes I can confirm,I have watched a ton of nuke footage, never seen these angles before. Ten thousand reels?

Get Busy Stanford.

a reply to: facedye

Cool find!

I've like LLNL since delving into nuclear fusion. I am glad to see that they saving this historic footage. And not just that, declassifying them too. Crazy funky names for their tests too!

originally posted by: intrptr

Outstanding! Yes I can confirm,I have watched a ton of nuke footage, never seen these angles before. Ten thousand reels?

Get Busy Stanford.

from what i understand they're still in the process of transferring all of them to digital video - could take a while x_x

if anything I'm sure they'll just add onto the already existing playlist of these operations in succession.

save these links! you won't be able to find these through a simple google search, and going through some of the articles I've seen referencing this footage can sometimes be fruitless.

Trinity and Beyond is probably the most comprehensive collection of nuke footage ever, but most of these were not in that movie at all, maybe none of them. Its interesting to see more get declassified. Perhaps they can make a second volume or new edition for the new footage??

a reply to: facedye

I have always been fascinated by atomic/nuclear bombs from a science standpoint. The sheer amount of energy inside something so small is crazy.

oops wrong thread...

a reply to: facedye

save these links! you won't be able to find these through a simple google search, and going through some of the articles I've seen referencing this footage can sometimes be fruitless.

They censor much of this because (imo) many off these above ground tests were conducted on US soil.

Kind of hush hush about it, nukes are devastating, they don't really want us knowing too much about them or the many industrial programs that bring them to fruition.

a reply to: facedye

Further: just reviewing some of those you added, awesome stuff, the persistance of light and radiant heat of the fireball is longer that I would have thought, I see gamma strikes on the film in a couple, too.

i could go on an on about it, neat stuff. This is why I come to ATS!

a reply to: intrptr

*cough* you mean like the yucca flat? *cough*

a reply to: facedye

Yup (ahem), lots of secret places in the deserts of the Southwest. Like Yucca flats, that place looks like the moon. They don't let people in there, too hot. Mostly people are directed to the trinity site in New Mexico, above ground testing doesn't leave craters.

Ever see Mulholland Falls? Theres neat references in there to nuke testing, one such, about 2 minutes into here...

originally posted by: intrptr

Outstanding! Yes I can confirm,I have watched a ton of nuke footage, never seen these angles before. Ten thousand reels?

Get Busy Stanford.

These were filmed at thousands of frames per second so digitizing them is a lossy process.

The view of LA at night from Mulholland Drive was gorgeous back in the 70's but the people living there were strange.
I'm having flashbacks.

a reply to: facedye

Amazing how little attention this drew. When I was younger I absorbed all I could about atomic weapons, their development, testing and use.

We sit at a cross roads in history, the threat is still very real, perhaps more now than ever. And yet we reman blissfully ignorant.

Linking to the YouTube depository of 64 videos, so far...

YouTube

213 kiloton from a barge, natural light...

8.3 megaton air drop at 12000 feet...

.188 kiloton airburst, 500 feet...

Many of these are garnering attention online. The videos have been out a day and seem to be going viral...

This is your house if the nukes ever start flying .

a reply to: intrptr

holy! That second video looks like a new sun was just born in the sky. Magnificent!

a reply to: facedye

Awesome man!

en.m.wikipedia.org...

Wikipage for Op Plumbbob (underground test) mentions they had a verticle shaft with a steel cap atop it.

Kind of like the ultimate version of a 14 yr old kid putting an m80 in a trash can to see how high the lid will go flying into the air, the U.S. Government did a scaled up version with a nuke and a hunk of steel... Just to see what would happen.

The scientific data from said expiriment was... Incalculable. It is, as follows:

It (the metal cap) disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to it.

a reply to: 3n19m470

hmm... hunks of steel disappearing without figuring out what happened to it...

not to derail my own thread (LOL i might be shooting myself in the foot with this cheekiness) but.. your description kinda reminds me of something else.