Operation Hardtack-1 - Poplar 52894

The U.S. conducted 210 atmospheric nuclear tests between 1945 and 1962, with multiple cameras capturing each event at around 2,400 frames per second. But in the decades since, around 10,000 of these films sat idle, scattered across the country in high-security vaults. Not only were they gathering dust, the film material itself was slowly decomposing, bringing the data they contained to the brink of being lost forever.
For the past five years, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) weapon physicist Greg Spriggs and a crack team of film experts, archivists and software developers have been on a mission to hunt down, scan, reanalyze and declassify these decomposing films. The goals are to preserve the films’ content before it’s lost forever, and provide better data to the post-testing-era scientists who use computer codes to help certify that the aging U.S. nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure and effective.
Read more: www.llnl.gov/news/physicist-d...
LLNL Copyright and Reuse Policy: www.llnl.gov/copyright-and-reuse
See the declassified LLNL tests: • LLNL Atmospheric Nucle...

[@92kosta]

One of the rare shots that gives a good perspective on how big these mushroom clouds really are.

[@ugowar]

Seismic shock arriving at 17 seconds into the video.

[@LeathanL]

Amazing footage. It would be interesting to know a few more particulars of the test, such as position of camera, distance from ground zero, camera speed, etc.

[@pingopete]

Leathan Lund would be nice to have the cam location for sure, and I think judging from the shock wave this looks like real time footage. EDIT the frame counter I the left shows roughly 30 frames per second so I think it is normal speed

[@philipritter3642]

This video is running in real time. The detonation took place just off of Namu Island in Bikini Atoll. I'm pretty certain this camera was positioned on the Island of Bikini, which is about 17 miles east of Namu according to Google Maps. If you look on Google Maps, you can see the shape of Bikini Island matches the pointed shape of the island in this video. The shockwave takes about 1 minute and 20 seconds to hit the camera, which also corresponds to a distance of 17 miles so I think my guess is probably right.

[@LeathanL]

Thanks for the response, and I think your analysis is correct. I recently learned that the Poplar shot was set on a barge floating over the crater formed by the previous Castle Bravo shot, so the angles line up correctly. They must have set up a fairly impressive tower for the camera. The elevation looks to be at least 100 feet or so, and as far as I know nothing on Bikini is high enough to have afforded this view.

[@low_bldp4480]

@@LeathanL They built 1500 foot towers sometimes, even.

[@low_bldp4480]

@@philipritter3642 At the end of the video, the cloud is probably around 20 miles high.

[@DCvsDJ]

1:25 here comes the shockwave

[@tammyharrington138]

❤

[@P-G-77]

Cloud development, this type of reels i like...

[@shitosawpasterski2978]

I see it first time.

[@chadmcelroy4194]

@LLNL will you release more films from some of the iconic tests like Ivy Mike, Castle Bravo, and Hardtack Oak?

[@ugowar]

All those shots were Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory devices so they would have to be the ones to release the footage.

[@davidong3325]

Okay Sure!

[@Mistland]

so cool

[@mrhegyi]

0:58 white saucer appears for some seconds and cloaks away from dimension.

[@Darkwizzrobe]

I wonder if you would be receiving third degree burns from the flash by standing where the camera is positioned.

[@bjornragnarsson8692]

You would have a 100% probability of receiving 3rd degree burns standing where the camera is positioned (16 miles away). A 9.3 MT barge blast at a burst height of 12 feet would have a 100% 3rd degree burn radius of 17.5 miles.

[@RaptorGP]

They say the camera was settled 17 miles away from ground zero. Poplar was such a huge blast, but the shockwave appears rather weak at that distance. Compare it with 1.6 Mt RDS-37's shock wave that rushed into a town located about 38 miles from ground zero.

[@busyman05]

That is assuming the shockwave is traveling exactly at the speed of sound. It starts out much faster and as it travels it slows down to the speed of sound so calculating it by taking the speed of the shockwave as constant wouldn't be accurate. It would give you the minimum distance though. I'm not sure how correct that is for the RDS-37 test but one was a surface burst and the other an airburst which makes quite a difference as far as the overpressure goes.

[@RaptorGP]

@@busyman05 I'm agree, types of blast was different. They told about interesting phenomenon about RDS test. Shockwave reflected many times from dense clouds and surface and didn't loose it's energy too fast.

[@low_bldp4480]

The shockwave is quite a bit faster than the speed of sound for a significant distance, so maybe adding 2 miles gives a more correct estimate.

[@Sacto1654]

I wonder have the Russian ever released videos of their high-yield nuclear tests on Novaya Zemiya besides the famous _Tsar Bomba_ 58 MT test....

[@hansmueller3029]

A horrifying weapon.

[@TheSamir202]

flash 10sec choc waves 1m30sec . Camera ditance from the ground zero 80sec × 340m/sec = 27km200. 9MT its very powerful.

[@kingdiamond5840]

Beauty and horror on another level. I continue to pray another one is never exploded, if we could be so lucky!

[@zebageba]

Or rucky.

[@scarletbegonia5150]

it stopped the war. Saving more lives than it cost. 10/10 would drop again. Peace is a lie. Peace is mutually ensured destruction. That's about it.

[@christianblade2052]

@Scarlet Begonia You are exactly right. These knuckleheads in the comment section will never get that nuclear weapons has kept the peace for several decades.

[@ruthweiner1150]

I was 11 years old when the Hiroshima bomb was dropped. I thought it was the most exciting thing imaginable (we were winning the war!) The bomb, radioactivity, and the biography of Marie Curie shaped my working life. I went on to major in physics, my Ph.D. dissertation dealt with radioactive materials, as did my professional and teaching career. This is not to downplay nuclear weapons -- they will hopefully never be used in actual combat again, We should note however that research and development of the uses of radioactivity and radioactive materials revolutionized materials science, medicine, energy conversion, and energy use depend on atomic science.

[@Muonium1]

interesting! what was the thesis title?

[@I.amthatrealJuan]

Now just six months after this comment was posted, there is renewed talk of possible nuclear attack in another part of the world. We have forgotten a lesson when many people who were alive when the bombs were last dropped as weapons of warfare are still here, one of which is you.

[@laserblast92]

Someone should have said after watching that "Ok I think that is enough...."

[@TheThebestgame4]

watch Tsar bomba,

[@DigitalHaze65536]

They did for the most most part. 9MT was the largest U.S. ICBM, maybe it was based off of this or Oak. They did have aircraft deliverable 25MT bombs.......but I would think the ICBM would have been more practical and in much larger numbers. Now the U.S. has much smaller bombs deployed, 1.2MT from aircraft and I think 475KT from missiles.....of course who knows if that is the truth!

[@Darkwizzrobe]

@@DigitalHaze65536 Imagine if you US tested a B41 nuclear bomb with all three stages.

[@solidbase77]

@@Darkwizzrobe it would be very "dirty" blast, with highly radioactive fallout throughout the large area in the Pacific, cuz to get 25 Mt. yield, it would be needed detonation of the "dirty" thermonuclear device with the uranium tamper inside of the 2nd stage with deuteride-lithium 6 fuel and 2-nd stage uranium casing. All would be much worse than after the 15 Mt. Castle "Bravo" test. I mean consequences for the environment.

[@davidong3325]

Redwing Noctis (1956)

[@Lion_lamb]

When God makes pancakes

[@buzz-bombskateboards4833]

and MY carbon footprint matters...

[@Muonium1]

Buzz-Bomb Skateboards it's a NUCLEAR reaction, you fucktards. It doesn't emit carbon dioxide and doesn't contribute to global warming. If anything the tests of the era slightly cooled climate by injecting large amounts of reflective particulates into the stratosphere.

[@buzz-bombskateboards4833]

Right...

[@FIREBRAND38]

@@buzz-bombskateboards4833 Trying to insult someone by saying their smart? Yeah, just keep skating dude. I always wondered where those old homeless people living in cardboard boxes came from.

[@buzz-bombskateboards4833]

@@FIREBRAND38 Yeah, for sure... like, totally.