HOLLYWOOD, Oct 23 (Reuters)
Call it the blasts from the past
The U.S. Department of Energy next month plans to release films of U.S. nuclear weapons tests taken by a secret team of filmmakers that have never publicly been shown before. . . .
A first set of film was released earlier this year but the new set will show atmospheric tests and big bomb explosions publicly for the first time. . . .
``I was so amazed at the beautiful colors -- the pinks, the oranges, the reds -- that I totally forgot that the shock wave was coming. It almost knocked me on my rear,'' said cameraman Pat Bradley, 74, of the first of dozens of blasts he filmed. . . .
An estimated 6,500 films and clips, most of them produced by the squadron, were locked away after physicists learned to calculate the yield and composition of the bombs from the size of the mushroom cloud and intensity of the fireball. . . .
``Somebody called up from one of the other agencies and said 'Where did you get that film from. We thought we destroyed them all,''' Energy Department declassification director Bryon Siebert said of SURVIVING FOOTAGE OF TESTS OF PROTOTYPE NUCLEAR WEAPONS DESIGNED TO BE CARRIED INTO BATTLE BY SOLDIERS. [Emphasis added]
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