Castle Bravo - plasma beauty

[GeneW]

This is a film of the test "Castle Bravo", part of the Castle series. Some of this film also includes segments of the Castle Romeo run.

This is the first use of a "Dry" lithium-deuteride system versus using pure liquid deuterium (heavy hydrogen).

The reaction "ran away" because the Los Alamos gang did not factor in a reaction where Lithium 7 would combine with a neutron to form Tritium and Helium. The resulting blast, conducted a ground level, pulverized a huge quantity of coral into dust, irradiated it and ejected it for hundreds of miles.

If you observe carefully you can see the edges of the Eniwetok atoll under the bomb's glare. This gives you a clue to how big it grew as the reaction continued.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd1IFjBNNVo



Gene