Largest Nuclear Test in History | Castle Bravo Complete Footage
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 10 июн 2024
- March 1st 1954, Castle Bravo, the largest thermonuclear device ever was detonated by the United States. The test was part of a larger operation for testing high-yield nuclear devices, known as Operation Castle, conducted by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Defense. The operation took place at Bikini Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands, used by the U.S. military beginning in 1946 for nuclear weapons testing research. While the test advanced thermonuclear weapons design, miscalculations about the yield resulted in the largest U.S. nuclear contamination accident.
The United States tested its first thermonuclear device, known as Ivy Mike, two years earlier in 1952, also in the Marshall Islands. In the wake of the Ivy Mike test, U.S. scientists rushed to create a set of deliverable thermonuclear designs.
Whereas Ivy Mike was a “wet” thermonuclear device (meaning that the hydrogen isotope used in the device was liquid), Castle Bravo was a “dry” device, which greatly reduced its weight and size. Castle Bravo was the first deliverable thermonuclear device, and the test aimed to pave the way for the creation of more effective weapons, including weapons that could be deliverable by aircraft.
The designers of Castle Bravo seriously miscalculated the yield of the device, resulting in critical radiation contamination. They predicted that the yield of the device would be roughly five to six megatons (a megaton is the equivalent of one million tons of TNT). Scientists were shocked when Castle Bravo produced an astounding 15 megaton yield, making it 1,000 times as powerful as the U.S. nuclear weapons used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The miscalculation occurred because scientists did not realize that the “dry” source of fusion fuel, lithium deuteride with 40 percent content of lithium-6 isotope, would contribute so greatly to the overall yield of the detonation.
The Castle Bravo device weighed approximately 23,500 pounds. The mushroom cloud formed after the detonation grew to nearly four-and-a-half miles wide and reached a height of 130,000 feet six minutes after the detonation. The crater left behind has a diameter of 6,510 feet and a depth of 250 feet. Despite its immense power, the Castle Bravo test is only the fifth largest test in history. With a yield of 50 megatons, the Tsar Bomba, tested by the Soviet Union in October 1961, holds the record for the largest nuclear test.
The test resulted in nuclear fallout that rained down on inhabitants of the atolls near the site of detonation and serviceman working on Operation Castle. Critical fallout occurred in the Rongelap, Rongerik, Alinginea and Utirik atolls in the Marshall Islands. Evacuations organized by the United States were too slow to limit the lethal doses of radiation and, in many cases, inhabitants did not know about the nuclear test or the consequences of nuclear fallout. In one tragic example, around five hours after Castle Bravo detonated, radioactive powder began to fall on Rongelap Atoll. Believing that this powder was snow, many inhabitants played in and ate the powder.
For years later, inhabitants of the island experienced numerous health problems, including birth defects. An estimated 665 inhabitants of the Marshall Islands were overexposed to radiation. Beyond the atolls, traces of radioactive material were discovered in Australia, India, Japan, the United States and Europe. Nuclear fallout spread over roughly 7,000 square miles.
An hour and a half after the detonation, nuclear fallout reached a Japanese fishing vessel, the “Lucky Dragon No. 5,” which was around 80 miles east of the test site. Ultimately, one of the 23 crew members died of acute radiation poisoning, while many others faced serious health effects. After U.S. nuclear weapons use in Japan only nine years earlier, the Castle Bravo test caused an international dispute between the two countries and drew negative attention to atmospheric thermonuclear testing. Several weeks after the test, former Indian Prime Minister Nehru called for a “standstill agreement” on nuclear tests, marking one of the earliest efforts to halt nuclear weapons testing.
The mistakes of the Castle Bravo test did not end thermonuclear testing by the United States or other countries. Operation Castle continued with a further series of nuclear tests on the Marshall Islands after the Castle Bravo test. Overall, between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific Ocean.
Though these weapons are no longer in the US arsenal, there is still the ever present threat of nuclear war in the world.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro to Castle Bravo
00:52 Background to Castle Bravo
04:21 Castle Bravo Angle 1
04:57 Castle Bravo Angle 2
05:43 Castle Bravo Angle 3
06:58 Castle Bravo Angle 4
08:14 - Castle Bravo Angle 5
09:09 Castle Bravo Angle 6
#castlebravo #nuclear #nuke #atomic
Or become a Patron / upscaledhistory
KA BOOOOOMMMM... they said the nuke was supposed to be 9.5 megatons, but it was17.0 megatons... not 15 megatons 🤷♂️.
That’s interesting, all the sources I read said 15M, do you somewhere I can see the 17? Interesting info
One of my uncles was on the base for the Castle Bravo detonation. The military did not have enough PPE to go around. The soldiers that didnt have any were told to turn their backs to the detonation and close their eyes. My uncle said even with his eyes closed, he could see the bones in his hands when it went off. The nuclear testing has destroyed the ecosystem there, and the native peoples mostly had to be evacuated. There are some that refused to leave, and their population is in decline due to fertility issues and lots of birth defects. And yet, the US government refuses to take ownership of the disaster they caused and do right by the natives there and fix it. They even denied, for a very long time, that their own soldiers were contracting cancers caused by the testing. They've since admitted it, too late to help my uncle, who died of leukemia that was caused by the radioactive fallout.
And usa is the land of freedom and make this shit stupids militar and "cientifics" gringos i not a communist but usa sucks other type of capitalism is possible
The thumbnail says largest nuclear test in the US but the title says its the largest nuclear test in history, which is incorrect as the Soviets conducted the largest nuclear test in history, the Tsar Bomba.
bro i was gonna comment this
Is there any way I can use this footage for my video where I talk about this topic? thank you kindly!
on some of these wide shots, it looks like you used one of those AI image sharpening programs and it got a little inventive with the water.
Gotta Love Castle Bravo!
where did you get that clip at 3:25
Documentary
@@UpscaledHistory thx btw which documentary
Is your contact email on your main page sir!?
Hey Jay, yes I’ve posted it like several times but I think RUclips keeps removing it. On my channel page you can find it in my contact new section
@@UpscaledHistory Great to catch up! I'm wondering what to send you, now I got the external drive adapter, to hook up my 2tb backup drive, crammed with footage. I'll get something unpublished to you either way!
That would be great and awesome, I’m working on another video now about After Oppenheimer and the H bomb tests with interview footage from Teller