#i'd rather pass the mic to someone more knowledgeable on the effects on indigenous peoples

[kaizykat]

Adding more (disturbing) information!

TW: Nuclear explosions, bombs, mannequins, fire, nuclear war, Cold War

This seems to be footage from the Operation Teapot nuclear test explosions (specifically, the Apple 2 explosion) that was conducted in the United States at the Nevada Test site in 1955.

I can't find the original source material from an educational archive, most likely because this test was also the one where they filmed the Operation Cue educational film (1955 version, 1964 revision). Below is the 1964 version!

Nuclear blast starts at 8:50 into the clip!

This test was interesting because it was done in a simulated town, dubbed "Survival Town." That's what you see in the video!

Link to more information about the town: Nevada National Security Site (NNSS)

You can visit the remains of the test town! It's part of the monthly tour that the NNSS gives! But, it's still a government site, so you can't bring your cell phone, camera, camcorder, or tape recorders.

This particular test (or "shot") was a tower detonation at 500 feet with a yield of 29 kilotons.

I think that this gif is a mirrored version of this particular clip, which is managed by Science Photo Library.

Here's a compilation of nuclear blast effects on buildings from the 1950s (Sound added by uploader):

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) also scanned and archived recordings of nuclear detonations! Here's a pretty cool one.

LLNL Playlist Link (497 videos)

BTW: This bomb was tiny in comparison to the ones we have today.

From what I can find, this was an atomic bomb, but not a hydrogen bomb. Hydrogen bombs are much, much larger!

Here's what the Apple 2 test bomb would look like in Washington DC, directly over the White House (NUKEMAP link):

The largest warhead that the United States currently has in its arsenal is the B83, with a payload of 1.2 megatons (12,000 kilotons).

Since the Apple 2 shot was conducted at a 500ft airburst, we'll apply that same parameter for this warhead and run a simulation.

Here's what a B83 would look like with the same target (NUKEMAP link):

To say that it's bigger is a massive understatement!

The biggest nuclear weapon ever detonated was the Tsar Bomba, a 50 megaton bomb.

It was designed to be 100 megatons, but this was ludicrous. It wouldn't have allowed the pilots who flew the thing out there to survive.

Here's declassified footage of the Tsar Bomba explosion!

Check out NUKEMAP itself if you're curious about the modeled size and scale of many nuclear weapons.

Of course, the land that these nuclear weapons testing was and is not without its own indigenous peoples. I'm not very well educated in these matters, unfortunately, and this matter deserves its own post.

I did manage to dig up some articles and activists who speak about the literal fallout from the tests in the Nevada Proving Grounds.

"Nuclear Weapon States and Fourth World Nations" by Bernard Nietschmann and William Le Bon, Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine, December 1987.

"NEVADA VIEWS: Nuclear tests and the Shoshone people" by Ian Zabarte, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 27 June 2020.

"A message from the most bombed nation on earth" by Ian Zabarte, Al Jazeera, 29 August 2020.

The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) is supposed to give compensation to the people affected by nuclear fallout and testing in the United States, but that comes with its own problems. Here's a good article about this act and some problems:

"Fallout: First cancer, now delayed compensation for Indigenous downwinder communities" by Wudan Yan, High Country News, 4 May 2020.

As close as you will ever be to a nuclear explosion