Nuclear Test Preparations for Operation Bedrock Hybla Fair Detonation 1974 Defense Nuclear Agency

more at

Describes preparations for the Hybla Fair detonation on 28 October 1974, part of the Operation Bedrock series of nuclear tests. This test has been reported to be the first test to determine the ability of a nuclear weapon to generate X-rays for use in a laser. The film is about the testing methodology; the test itself does not appear in this film.

Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

Operation Bedrock was a series of 27 nuclear tests conducted by the United States in 1974-1975 at the Nevada Test Site. These tests followed the Operation Arbor series and preceded the Operation Anvil (Nuclear test) series…

Hybla Fair… 28 October 1974…

Test of a new line-of-sight pipe configuration for tunnel testing, basic measurements of blast parameters. The configuration proved to be inadequate for effects testing of warheads…

The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), previously the Nevada Test Site (NTS), is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the city of Las Vegas. Formerly known as the Nevada Proving Grounds, the site was established on 11 January 1951 for the testing of nuclear devices, covering approximately 1,360 square miles (3,500 km2) of desert and mountainous terrain. Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a 1-kiloton-of-TNT (4.2 TJ) bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat on 27 January 1951. Many of the iconic images of the nuclear era come from the NTS.

During the 1950s, the mushroom clouds from atmospheric tests could be seen for almost 100 mi (160 km). The city of Las Vegas experienced noticeable seismic effects, and the distant mushroom clouds, which could be seen from the downtown hotels, became tourist attractions. St. George, Utah, received the brunt of the fallout of above-ground nuclear testing in the Yucca Flats/Nevada Test Site. Winds routinely carried the fallout of these tests directly through St. George and southern Utah. Marked increases in cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, bone cancer, brain tumors, and gastrointestinal tract cancers, were reported from the mid-1950s through 1980.

From 1986 through 1994, two years after the United States put a hold on full-scale nuclear weapons testing, 536 anti-nuclear protests were held at the Nevada Test Site involving 37,488 participants and 15,740 arrests, according to government records. Those arrested included the astronomer Carl Sagan and the actors Kris Kristofferson, Martin Sheen, and Robert Blake.

The Nevada Test Site contains 28 areas, 1,100 buildings, 400 miles (640 km) of paved roads, 300 miles of unpaved roads, ten heliports, and two airstrips. The most-recent test was a sub-critical test of the properties of plutonium, conducted underground on December 7, 2012…

Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability of nuclear weapons…

Underground tests in the United States continued until 1992 (its last nuclear test), the Soviet Union until 1990, the United Kingdom until 1991, and both China and France until 1996. In signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996, these states have pledged to discontinue all nuclear testing. However, as of December 2013, the treaty has not yet entered into force because of failure to be signed/ratified by eight specific countries. Non-signatories India and Pakistan last tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

The most recent nuclear test occurred in February 2013 in North Korea. In January 2013, North Korea had announced that it planned to conduct further tests involving rockets that can carry satellites as well as nuclear warheads “to strike and attack the United States”…