Scorpions In a Bottle

“We may be likened to two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer, American Physicist, “Father of the Atomic Bomb”

After the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb in 1949, a massive buildup of arsenals ushered in the thermonuclear age. While the bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in August of 1945 equaled the energy of 15,000 tons of TNT, the one tested by the Soviets in 1961 – the largest ever detonated – equaled 58,000,000 tons of TNT. An evolution in weaponry had brought humankind to the brink of its own existence; and with the sudden launch of just one nuclear missile, a chain reaction would have threatened all life on Earth.

In 1954, two federal agencies, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense, ran a series of high-yield nuclear tests in the South Pacific known as Operation Castle. A 20 minute film - classified for most of the Cold War - was produced by the Department of Energy to document this operation. Click on the play icon to the left to examine this test of 6 nuclear bombs. What does the positioning of the camera tell us about the scale of the blasts? What did the agencies consider - and not consider - as they planned the tests?

from the archive

The Ready Reference for Nuclear Survival was distributed by the Atlanta Metropolitan Area for Civil Defense in the 1960s. Click on the three primary sources (above and to the left) to explore how the dangers of a nuclear attack were being conveyed to the community. Then search the nuclear weapons tag in the items list above.