USA declassified videos and photos of their most terrifying nuclear tests

in #atomic8 years ago

New videos and photographs of nuclear tests conducted in July 1946 by US Bikini Atoll have been recently declassified by the National Security Archive .

Just over 70 years ago , in July 1946 , the United States conducted two atomic weapons tests in the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Dubbed Operation Crossroads were the first nuclear explosions since the bombing of Japan in August 1945 .

The second test of this series of explosions , called Baker and held on July 25 , was the most dangerous , and besides radioactive destructions caused enormous ships that were exposed and produced iconic scenes contamination. Some of these images were later used by film director Stanley Kubrick in his film ' Dr. Strangelove ' .

New documents published by the National Security Archive shed light on Operation Crossroads, and offer a gallery of new videos and photographs never published.

According to the expert group appointed by the US Joint Chiefs to evaluate the results of these tests, radioactive water ' raised ' by the blast from the lagoon , he made the " contaminated ships to become ' radioactive stoves ' , and die burned all living beings [ located on ships animals were tested ] by the deadly radiation. "

The test Baker caused a real radiological crisis, because the US military assigned a special team to carry out various operations on board ships subject to radioactivity. Stafford Warren, radiation safety adviser working group , Admiral William Blandy warned about the danger of these activities. These warnings made ​​Blandy stop decontamination activities , but it turned out that many people between military and civilian personnel had already been exposed to radioactive substances .

Meanwhile , observers of the United Nations Commission on Atomic Energy , including two of the Soviet Union , Operation Crossroads viewed from a safe distance .

Recently declassified documents shed light on the atmosphere of the emerging Cold War ; Semyon Petrovich Alexandrov , one of those responsible for getting uranium for the Soviet nuclear project, a US scientist said that the purpose of the tests on Bikini atoll was " scaring the Soviets " .