In 1953, nuclear weapons tests were conducted at a testing ground in Nevada in order to determine the degree of destructive influence of a bomb on certain civilian objects. The other day, these records declassified, and the shots of the apartment house in high resolution were taken to the Net.
On March 17, 1953, a nuclear explosion threw some object out of a window on the second floor of a house built on the Nevada test range. The test, called “Annie,” was part of a larger Operation Uppshot-Knotole, which pursued two goals: the military wanted to test new weapons for possible inclusion in the United States arsenal, and the Civil Defense wanted to know that a nuclear explosion Can do with an ordinary residential house. The results of these and other tests affected the decades of the American nuclear program, but they left some questions unanswered.
Alex Wellerstein from the Stevens Institute of Technology, as well as other researchers can only guess at the nature of the mysterious object, given the limitations of the shooting material of that time. In April 2016, Wellerstein received the same staff from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, but at a higher resolution. Last week, declassified videotapes of nuclear tests appeared on the Internet, which prompted the scientist to study personnel – after all, the object that flew out of the window could be an ordinary toilet.
The Civil Defense Party in this operation was represented by the Operation Doorstep project, whose main task was to create an information base for civilians. The townsfolk had to be able to assess their chances of survival, being at some distance from the nuclear explosion. For example, can you survive it by hiding in a basement or bomb shelter? Will the chances increase if you rise higher? What factors play a major role and how to behave during a nuclear alarm?
In 1953, the “early” period of nuclear confrontation, the threat of a nuclear winter and an apocalyptic war was not yet. The testing of weapons was just beginning, the arsenals of even the major powers were still small enough, so such tests were more than justified. Alex says that the most favorite test for him was that as a result of which the military bombed office furniture and made an amazing discovery: thick file cabinets and in fact can survive the bombing, so if people can not be saved, securities and files can survive .
