After Oppenheimer | Nuclear Weapon Development After 1945

Christopher Nolan’s new movie Oppenheimer, eponymously named after the creator of the atomic bomb, has renewed public interest in America’s dark history with nuclear weapons. Nolan’s movie focuses primarily on the “Trinity” test—the first test of a nuclear bomb to occur in the U.S. But for years after Trinity, the U.S. continued to spend a ludicrous amount of time and money detonating nuclear bombs all over the southwestern United States and in various parts of the Pacific Ocean. No, the government was not trying to give us all cancer; it was just preparing for what it presumed was an inevitable nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union. The dozens and dozens of tests that took place after 1945 were conducted secretly, under various conditions, with an everevolving, ever more destructive roster of bombs.
Fascinatingly, the government also secretly filmed footage of these explosions and then squirreled the footage away in government vaults. Decades later, the videos have been declassified and is now all over the internet. Watching the footage is aweinspiring and horrifying—a window into the awesome powers that modern governments possess, and which we all hope will never have to be used. Scroll through to see some of the largest and most terrifying explosions ever recorded.
Operation Crossroads: Baker

Operation Upshot Knothole: Grable

Atomic Bomb blast with shock and effects in HD
The footage above shows “Grable,” part of Operation Upshot Knothole—which was a series of nuclear tests that took place in Nevada in 1953. The Grable test was unique due to the type of weapon involved: the bomb was fired in an MK9 artillery shell from a cannon (nicknamed “Atomic Annie”). The shell flew a distance of seven miles before it made an impact and exploded. Buses and cars can be seen being thrown around like toys, while the shockwave from the bomb spins outwards, warping and utterly transforming the surrounding landscape.
Operation Castle: Bravo

Castle Bravo
Operation Castle was a series of highyield nuclear tests that took place at Bikini Atoll in 1954. The test shown above, “Bravo,” took place on March 1, 1954, and is considered the largest nuclear test ever carried out by the U.S. government. “Bravo” involved a highyield thermonuclear bomb, and the blast from the explosion was immense. The planners for the test “seriously miscalculated the yield of the device,” Brookings Institute commentator Ariana Rowberry writes, which led to huge amounts of radiation contamination.
Aerial shot of a hydrogen bomb

REDWING HBomb
This footage is believed to be from either the Operation Castle series (which took place in 1954) or the Operation Redwing test series (which took place in 1956), both of which involved the ignition of large hydrogen bombs. The footage, shot from a plane flying over the site of the test, clearly shows the bomb’s radioactive cloud pluming out in all directions.
Operation Teapot: Turk

Operation Teapot Turk 28100
Operation Teapot took place in Nevada in 1955, the fifth in a series of atmospheric nuclear tests. Teapot involved 15 total tests. The test captured in the video above, “Turk,” took place on March 7, 1955.
Operation Teapot: Hornet

Operation Teapot shot hornet 1955
This test, “Hornet,” was also part of the Teapot program. It took place on March 12, 1955.
Operation Hardtack: Juniper

Operation Hardtack1 Juniper 53070
Operation Hardtack I was a series of nuclear tests that took place at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands in 1958. Each test was named after a particular kind of tree. This test, “Juniper,” took place on July 22, 1958. The detonation cloud reportedly rose some 40,000 feet in the air.
Operation Dominic: Sunset

Operation Dominic Sunset (1962)
Operation Dominic I was a series of 36 nuclear tests that were carried out in the Pacific in 1962. Tests included “airbursts,” underwater, and highaltitude shots. Many of the bombs that were set off led to explosions that were reportedly 700 times the size of the one used the destroy the city of Hiroshima. The test shown in the video above, Sunset, took place on July 10, 1962.

Lastly, The Government Made This Fake News Broadcast About a Nuclear Attack

Timestamps
00:00 Intro What Happened After Oppenheimer
01:16 Operation Crossroads
03:21 Operation UpshotKnothole
04:06 Operation Castle
05:41 Operation Hardtack
06:03 Operation Dominic
06:47 Dominic Sunset
07:58 News Broadcast Terrorists Detonate Nuclear Bomb in City

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