--- title: Nuclear Tests: New Videos Show Weapons' Horrifying Beauty description: The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory released never-before-seen films of American nuclear tests canonical: https://time.com/4712223/nuclear-test-videos/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-24T17:39:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:01:23.124Z article:section: Science og:title: The Horrifying Beauty of Never-Before-Seen Nuclear Test Videos og:description: The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory released films of American nuclear tests og:url: https://time.com/4712223/nuclear-test-videos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95dd915a677b9cdb/6988bfcb196cf4611203f605/nuclear-explosion.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3504 og:image:height: 1971 og:image:alt: Mushroom cloud from the first test of a hydrogen bomb, 1952. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Horrifying Beauty of Never-Before-Seen Nuclear Test Videos twitter:description: The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory released films of American nuclear tests twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95dd915a677b9cdb/6988bfcb196cf4611203f605/nuclear-explosion.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Horrifying Beauty of Never-Before-Seen Nuclear Test Videos > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 24, 2017 5:39 PM UTC  The mushroom cloud produced by the first explosion by the Americans of a hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific. Known as Operation Ivy, this test represented a major step forwards in terms of the destructive power achievable with atomic weapons. The hydrogen, or fusion, bomb used a fission device similar to those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, detonated inside a container containing deuterium. The high temperatures involved set off a fusion reaction in the deterium, releasing vast amounts of energy. The yield of the weapon was 10.4 megatonnes, more than the total of all the high explosive detonated in the entire duration of the Second World War. The mushroom cloud produced by the first explosion by the Americans of a hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific. Known as Operation Ivy, this test represented a major step forwards in terms of the destructive power achievable with atomic weapons. The hydrogen, or fusion, bomb used a fission device similar to those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, detonated inside a container containing deuterium. The high temperatures involved set off a fusion reaction in the deterium, releasing vast amounts of energy. The yield of the weapon was 10.4 megatonnes, more than the total of all the high explosive detonated in the entire duration of the Second World War. SSPL/Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 24, 2017 5:39 PM UTC Nothing captures the murderous folly of human beings quite like a nuclear detonation. It took an enormous amount of work to harness the fission and fusion power of the atom and release the kind of energy a nuclear weapon does. And the purpose? To blow up cities and kill a lot of people. Since the first successful test of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945, more than 2,100 other blasts have been set off in the air, underground and on outdoor test towers, for a total explosive yield of more than 540 megatons—the destructive equivalent of more than half a billion tons of TNT. Now, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has begun releasing digitized videos of the thousands of films taken of American tests conducted over the decades—particularly during the peak of the Cold War. Each explosion was typically filmed from multiple angles to give engineers as much visual data as possible. That produced an estimated 10,000 films, of which 6,500—many of them more than 60 years old—have been located intact. Over 4,000 of them have been scanned so far. Of the five shown in the video here, four were shot at the military’s desert test bed in Nevada. The last one was taken off of Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. The Nevada tests were tower blasts; the Bikini weapon was carried aboard a barge. There can be a kind of ugly beauty in scenes of destruction: consider the irresistible videos of abandoned buildings being demolished via controlled explosions. But there’s nothing to admire in a nuclear blast. It is manufactured hellfire, equally grotesque in appearance and purpose. 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