Nuclear testsNewly declassified videos of nuclear tests
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) released sixty-two newly declassified videos today of atmospheric nuclear tests films that have never before been seen by the public. The videos are the second batch of scientific test films to be published on the LLNL YouTube channel this year, and the team plans to publish the remaining videos of tests conducted by LLNL as they are scanned and approved for public release.
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) released sixty-two newly declassified videos today of atmospheric nuclear tests films that have never before been seen by the public.
The videos are the second batch of scientific test films to be published on the LLNL YouTube channel this year, and the team plans to publish the remaining videos of tests conducted by LLNL as they are scanned and approved for public release.
LLNL nuclear weapon physicist Gregg Spriggs is leading a team of film experts, code developers and interns on a mission to hunt down, scan and reanalyze what they estimate to be 10,000 films of the 210 atmospheric tests conducted by the United States between 1945 and 1962. With many of the films suffering from physical decay, their goal is to preserve this priceless record before it’s lost forever, and to provide more accurate scientific data to colleagues who are responsible for certifying the stockpile every year.
“We’ve received a lot of demand for these videos and the public has a right to see this footage,” Spriggs said. “Not only are we preserving history, but we’re getting much more consistent answers with our calculations.
“It’s been 25 years since the last nuclear test, and computer simulations have become our virtual test ground. But those simulations are only as good as the data they’re based on. Accurate data is what enables us to ensure the stockpile remains safe, secure and effective without having to return to testing.”
“The data must be off”
LLNL says that ten years ago, Spriggs was asked to write a computer code related to nuclear weapons effects, but his calculations didn’t agree with what was published in the 1950s and 1960s. When he dug in to find out why there was a discrepancy, he discovered that the manual measurements made in the 1950s and 1960s were off, in some cases by 20 percent to 30 percent. His new mission had become clear: reanalyze all the nuclear test films to ensure future computer simulations would be validated.
