Also courtesy of a link at Dark Roasted Blend (as in the post below), we find this video clip of a film-maker's perspective on an underwater nuclear test in the Pacific in the late 1950's. It's worth watching in full-screen mode.
I wonder how many fish died in that bang? And how about the camera crew, who were forced to climb trees when waves submerged the island on which they were standing. Were any of them affected by radiation present in the water? Can anyone tell us?
Peter
From my memories of the late 50s and 60s, all we had to do was hide under the school desks when teach tolds us and we'd be safe!...
ReplyDeleteOn the less serious side: I'm totally in awe at attempts to sue Japan because of the "increased radiation in US due to Fukushima"!
I'm reminded of the flash animation available on utube, showing how many air explosions took place in the US, Nevada desert, in the 50s and 60s.
All one has to do is go to googleEarth and check out the high rez area around 70miles NNE of Las Vegas: it looks like the moon surface, for hundreds of miles.
Of course, that didn't generate ANY fallout to the rest of continental US+Canada. It's only those "bad japs" that did create fallout...
The dead fish and other sea creatures had to number in the billions. Bet that area stunk pretty badly for a while afterwards!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'd guess that the radiation risk was actually surprisingly low. Water does a good job of blocking gamma if there's enough of it (one reason why it's an excellent reactor moderator). The biggest danger would probably be the alpha and beta "dust" but those're short range and mostly a danger if they're ingested or not washed off quickly enough.
bmq is correct I believe. Very little radiation actually propagated to shore. And that was one hellva fish fry!
ReplyDeleteThat was only one of more than 40 a bomb and H-bomb tests. Those islands and the bottom of those lagoons are still highly radio-active some 60 years later. The men involved in those "tests" mostly died of cancer,while spending years fighting the government to get the VA to treat them.The cameras were robotic. No one did a wildlife study(no one was allowed to for 40 years-the lagoon was to "hot")P.S Thousend of people died from this "testing" - at the time and for many decades after.
ReplyDeleteYes, and a large percentage of those tests were above ground or aerial. I'm not advocating nuclear testing (in a lot of ways I wish we'd never found that particular box of Pandora's) but if it's going to happen then underwater is a damn good way to do it.
ReplyDeleteThe plight of the men involved is indeed tragic but no amount of modern anger about it is going to change the events of ~60 years ago. Better to remember them, use their research, and enjoy the footage they laboured to take.
Because let's be honest, it's damn cool footage.
Here's an article about the cameramen's reunion:
ReplyDelete"The cameramen (many of whom joined the regular Air Force picture division when Lookout, which also filmed NASA rockets and some fighter-jet instructional reels, folded in 1969) insist they were never in fear of radiation exposure and attribute no health problems to it. "People often ask, 'Weren't you afraid of getting cancer?' And the answer is no," says Bradley. Yvonne Cannon says she worried more about the flying her husband had to do. "There were badges that told of the exposure they were getting, and they were always being monitored," she says. When Bradley, who lives in Sun City, Calif., underwent successful treatment for prostate cancer six years ago, his doctor asked him how much radiation he had been exposed to. "I said I thought I had about 5 roentgens of total body radiation," he says. "He looked at me and said, 'I'm going to give you 7,000 roentgens as part of your radiation therapy' "
"
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20124630,00.html
If you look at 0:05 to 0:08 on the video, you can see that the cameras were mounted on platforms attached to the trees already.
ReplyDeleteSo the cameramen did not flee up the trees, the tree location was their station for the filming of the test.
Re Noon's comment
ReplyDeleteGoogle earth
Nevada Nuclear Test Site, Nye, NV
- looks like a strip 2 miles wide and 10 miles long
"Sedan" crater looks the biggest
Re Anonymous comment:
ReplyDelete(how did I know it WOULD be anonymous?...)
If you actually applied a little bit of attention, you'd have noticed that it is impossible for 1000+ test sites to fit in such an area.
You'll notice the area starts at 36°47'28.70"N - 115°56'24.25"W
and goes all the way to Tonopah, 38° 4'0.52"N - 117°13'47.08"W. Now, measure the distance.
10 miles you say? Sure....
And from now on I'm to be called the Dalai Lama...
But if you actually used some thought instead of the usual "excuse every crime at any cost", try turning on the Google Earth Community flag and you'll see the exact test site and actual yield of EACH explosion, marked with an "i".
Hey, I didn't post those: someone in the US did. So, stop chasing windmills.
That's no fair! When my grandfather did that with leftover dynamite, the Fish and Game people complained.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1