Jakarta –
Despite some of the conspiracy claims that often circulate, nuclear testing is a real thing and historical documentation is in the form of original photos and video footage.
Some people on the internet say the nuclear test documentation is just part of a conspiracy. Some say the recorded history of nuclear weapons testing is actually fake. They doubted the nuclear bomb test was immortalized, because surely the camera that recorded such a huge explosion would have been destroyed too.
This is an interesting question. How could something as delicate as a camera survive the apocalyptic devastation of a nuclear explosion, especially one made decades ago?
The latest origins of disbelief stem from an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast which showed footage of a 1950s nuclear explosion that destroyed buildings, homes and cars.
In his comments, billionaire Marc Andreessen questioned the validity of the footage by highlighting several oddities, including the camera’s ability to survive explosions.
The podcast actually had a big impact. A day after its release, a Facebook post cited by Reuters shared the footage and asked, “Why didn’t the cameras in this video of the nuclear test explode with the houses being blown up?”
The person who posted it then jumped to the conclusion that the footage of the bomb test was most likely fake. “Feels like we’ve been lied to for decades about this,” he wrote.
They also question the reality behind the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, because people are still living there today despite the nuclear holocaust.
Other posts on Instagram even openly accused the United States (US) by giving the title “Did the US falsify this Nuclear Test Video?”
The short answer is no, they don’t. Scientifically, this doubt can actually be answered. Authorities have hundreds of sources documenting US nuclear history, including how the test explosion was filmed. There are even books on the subject that cover it in detail.
Quoted from IFL Science, many of the recorded nuclear bomb tests took place in the Pacific or in the Nevada desert, away from any citizens who might have been injured in the explosion. This documentation is used as a source of information for scientists investigating the strength and nature of nuclear explosions.
Some of the recordings are also used as tutorials for federal and congressional leaders who need to know how these bombs work.
The camera team in charge used the advanced technology of the day, including advanced cameras and lenses, and new projection techniques. These technologies are being adopted by Hollywood in its development.
Most of the archives of nuclear weapons test footage are currently available online. There have been several attempts to declassify the archive (it is no longer classified information) since the Cold War ended in 1991.
According to a 2010 New York Times interview with the “atomic cameraman,” there was an entire team of film crews filming this test run at the time. The interviewee believes he and his colleagues were so close to the explosion that the accompanying radiation likely killed many of them at a young age.
“The people who make these films and cameras do the documentation of nuclear tests, this is what they do,” said Alex Wellerstein, historian of nuclear science and technology at the Stevens Institute of Technology.
“They are quality engineers whose whole deal is to take unusual pictures of things and create a whole camera to do this.”
So how do they do it? In short, the camera used to film the test was specifically designed to withstand explosions. The device is encased in steel and lead and housed in a tower secured with concrete. All this information is available in military documents.
In 1955, through Operation Teapot, 48 cameras were installed at a distance of between 838 and 3,200 meters from the zero point of the explosion site. All of these cameras are protected. Cameras aimed at the outside of the building are housed in a tower embedded in concrete at a height that helps minimize interference from dust and dirt.
Also, it’s important to remember that the footage we’re seeing is simply the result of the cameras surviving. The rest, many cameras were indeed destroyed while trying to capture the moment of the powerful explosion.
It is regrettable that such suspicions are directed at the history of nuclear weapons, at a time when we should all be concerned about their lethal power.
Since the release of the film ‘Oppenheimer’, we have been reminded of the threat posed by atomic and thermonuclear weapons. In addition, this denial of the reality of the development of weapons of mass destruction hurt hundreds of thousands of people who died in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War.
Watch the video “There’s an Atomic Bomb and a Nuclear Bomb, What’s the Difference?”
(rns/rns)
2023-08-02 15:15:50
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