US Government Declassifies New High-Definition Nuclear Detonation Images

Defined.

During the Cold War, the United States tested a variety of nuclear weapons throughout islands in the South Pacific and New Mexico. These destructive weapons were detonated under heightened security with much of the imagery withheld from the public. Now several decades later the test footage has been declassified and is undergoing a restoration process.

“We have a more fundamental understanding of how these weapons work today than we ever imagined when we were blowing them up.”

– Bruce T. Goodwin (Livermore National Laboratory)

In total, the United States conducted 1,030 nuclear tests from the late 1940s all the way up until 1992 when they were finally halted. The data was recorded to understand how these weapons would affect a variety of targets in many different environments. However, the United States Government’s dedication to secrecy meant that these films would stay locked away in vaults decaying over the years.

“We know that these films are on the brink of decomposing to the point where they’ll become useless. The data that we’re collecting now must be preserved in a digital form, because no matter how well you treat the films, no matter how well you preserve or store them, they will decompose. … We got to this project just in time to save the data.”

– Greg Spriggs (LLNL Weapon Physicist)

These days the United States Government has nothing to hide when it comes to old nuclear tests so it made the decision to declassify these films. Check out these nuclear detonations in their new form restored to a high-definition format.