This is a screenshot of Operation Hardtack, a video posted on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's YouTube channel as part of the release Thursday of several declassified videos.
Batch of newly declassified nuclear test videos released

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory released 62 newly declassified videos Thursday of atmospheric nuclear tests films.

The videos are the second batch of scientific test films to be published on the LLNL YouTube channel this year. The team plans to publish the remaining videos of tests conducted by LLNL as they are scanned and approved for public release.

LLNL nuclear weapon physicist Gregg Spriggs is leading a team of film experts, code developers and interns on a mission to hunt down, scan and reanalyze what they estimate to be 10,000 films of the 210 atmospheric tests conducted by the U.S. between 1945 and 1962.

With many of the films suffering from physical decay, their goal is to preserve this priceless record before it’s lost forever, and to provide more accurate scientific data to colleagues who are responsible for certifying the stockpile every year.

“We’ve received a lot of demand for these videos and the public has a right to see this footage,” said Spriggs. “Not only are we preserving history, but we’re getting much more consistent answers with our calculations.