Now you can watch super secret nuclear weapons tests from the 1950s on YouTube


A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Once kept far from the public eye, formerly classified footage of U.S. nuclear tests made in the 1950s and 1960s is now available on YouTube via the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. There are about 60 clips already published as of this writing, many of them less than a minute long, and thousands more to come.
The films were originally used by nuclear scientists, who analyzed them one frame at a time to create nuclear prediction models that remain in use half a century later. Back then, researchers "actually had to eyeball what the answer was or what the measurement was," said Greg Spriggs, who is directing a project to reanalyze the footage using far more accurate computer technology at the Lawrence Livermore facilities.
Spriggs said the films should be public to remind people "of the immense energy that's produced with a nuclear detonation, and hopefully ... nobody will ever want to use these things or attack the United States." Watch that energy in action during a test called Operation Hardtack, below. Bonnie Kristian
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
10 things you need to know today: October 1, 2023
Daily Briefing Government shutdown avoided as Congress passes temporary funding bill, Supreme Court to begin new term as major cases await, and more
By Justin Klawans Published
-
6 thrilling reads chosen by Ken Follett
Feature The historical novelist suggests works by Frank Herbert, Charles Dickens and more
By The Week Staff Published
-
Dress-down democracy
Feature What we lose when we shun suits and ties
By Theunis Bates Published
-
Tuberville's military promotions block is upending lives, combat readiness, 3 military branch chiefs say
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Ukraine's counteroffensive is making incremental gains. Does it matter in the broader war?
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
US commissions first-ever Navy ship in a foreign port
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
British spy chief, Wagner video suggest Prigozhin is alive and freely 'floating around'
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
The US will soon finish destroying its last chemical weapons
Speed Read
By Brigid Kennedy Published
-
Putin and Prigozhin offer rival explanations for Wagner's brief rebellion
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
The future of the Wagner Group is murky
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Wagner Group stops armed rebellion toward Moscow
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published