Trama

The history of nuclear weapons between 1945 until 1963.

A documentary presenting mankind's most ambitious effort at perfecting the means to its own annihilation. Featuring newly unclassified atomic test footage.—Peter Kuran <VCEinc@AOL.com>

1st nuclear device (21 kilotons KT) tested on July 16th, 1945, at site Trinity. Trinity site is in New Mexico and a desert area. 100 tons of TNT was exploded in 1945 to test the scale of an atomic weapon.

Einstein wrote to Roosevelt of the urgency to develop atomic science in response to German advances in the field by 1939. Germans had discovered fission and were close to an atomic bomb. Hence began Manhattan project led by Maj Leslie Groves. Dr Oppenheimer was the lead scientist. On Dec 2nd, 1942, the first self-sustaining pile of nuclear reactions was achieved under controlled circumstances. Huge Uranium enrichment plants were set up in Oakridge Tennessee, and for Plutonium in Hanford, Washington. The first bomb was assembled at Los Alamos.

The first bomb tested was the Plutonium Fat Man design. It had a ball of Plutonium at the center, surrounded by Lensing explosives that fires in tandem to create an implosion to push the plutonium further into its casing to achieve critical mass. The bomb vaporized everything within half a mile of the tower. Temperatures reached 10 million degrees. The intensity of light caused temporary blindness 10 miles away. The yield of the blast was 200 times of the TNT. The blast crater was 0.5 mile across. Sand turned to glass.

Germany surrendered in May 1945, but the land invasion of Japan would have a huge human cost. Japanese fought ferociously on the Islands leading up to Japan. The bomber base was set at Tinian Islands, 1500 miles from Japan. 6th Aug 1945, Enola Gay drops Little boy, Uranium based nuclear bomb, (15 KT) on Hiroshima. On 9th Aug 1945 Fat Man, a Plutonium based nuclear bomb (20 KT) was dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrenders. Hiroshima: 70,000 people died. 60,000 of its 90,000 buildings were demolished. Nagasaki: Killed 40,000 and injured 42,000 more. 39% of buildings were destroyed. Fat Man was considered a nominal atomic bomb.

Bikini Atoll testing in 1946 to check effects on life, which made the area radioactive. 2 bombs were set off in tandem. One from the air, one from 90 feet below the surface of the water. The air bomb sent 2 destroyers to the bottom of the ocean and damaged everything within a half a mile radius. The water bomb was essentially the same bomb but created a far higher damage of the assembled armada of ships. The area around the water bomb became seriously radioactive and could not be approached for some time. Serious loss of life on all ships. Testing on Bikini Atoll shifted to higher yields with the same amount of Plutonium as Nagasaki. Apr 1948, 37 Kilotons. May 1948, 49 Kilotons. The Los Alamos focus changed to designing deliverable nuclear weapons, with light weight and high yield. US started building a stockpile of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.

USSR detonates 1949 with help of a spy. The spy was a physicist in Las Alamos, who passed detailed design drawings to the Soviets. Testing was moved to Nevada, 60 miles north of Las Vegas in 1951. 5 bombs were tested by dropping from the air. Adding Trillium to the bomb doubled its yield in a process calling "Boosting". Adding Deuterium to the core created the first thermos-nuclear bomb. This led to the development of the Hydrogen bomb. Ivy Mike in 1951 was the 1st H Bomb (10 MT), with Bravo in 1954 (15 MT) the largest US fusion device.

11 more tests were conducted in Nevada to test battle tactics with nuclear weapons. A 15 KT weapon at 500 feet created greater battlefield damage than a 20 KT weapon at 2800 feet. The 500 feet weapon created a unique shock wave signature, called percussive wave.

More testing was conducted to determine the impact of nuclear blasts in civilian areas and on submarines underwater. All the testing basically ruined the pacific island atolls. In 1956 US tested air dropped Thermo-nuclear weapons in the Pacific Proving grounds, the Atolls. As the tests grew, the realization dawned about the effects of radiation and fallout. Tests were conducted to see how much radiation passes through the human body.

In 1956 testing moved underground in Nevada. 24 tests were conducted by the US in light of the looming moratorium. 1958 space testing that discovered EMP. Space testing was in response to Soviet superiority in space.

US and Soviets agreed to a testing moratorium, but the Soviets broke it after 2 years. 57 MT device tested by USSR in 1960. The US retaliated with its own series of tests designed to test new capabilities.

US tests delivery methods such as submarines, ICBMs, cannons etc. Many tests were conducted to test if incoming nuclear missiles could be neutralized with a missile based nuclear detonation in the atmosphere. Kennedy finally bans atmospheric testing in 1960s after a total of 331 tests. Now China started testing nuclear weapons in the Atmosphere.