Vintage US nuclear test films declassified and publicized

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — From the deserts of southern New Mexico and Nevada to islands in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. government conducted dozens of nuclear weapons tests from the 1940s until the early 1960s.

Some of the blasts sent incredible mushroom clouds into the sky and massive fireballs across the landscape.

A team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has now published more than five dozen vintage films salvaged from high-security vaults across the U.S. where they sat idle for decades.

Lab physicist Greg Spriggs says the films were in danger of decomposing and being lost to history.