Newly Digitized Nitrate Reels Show Earliest Days of Nuclear Testing

Several years ago, before the National Security Research Center opened its doors in 2019, staff in the Lab’s Records Management group worked with colleagues at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to inspect thousands of reels of film among the Lab’s records, looking for any that contained the volatile material nitrocellulose, more commonly called nitrate. This highly flammable type of film—which was discontinued for use in the early 1950s— was used to record footage of some of the earliest nuclear tests. Because nitrate film stock remains a fire hazard and becomes toxic as it deteriorates, the 68 reels identified were transferred to a special freezer, awaiting safe handling solutions.

Now, NSRC archivists and experts in media handling and preservation have utilized the necessary equipment, resources, and expertise to make these unique films accessible. After careful planning and collaboration between the NSRC and the Lab’s fire safety and industrial hygiene teams, 65 of the reels—which include footage from Operations Sandstone and Ivy and the Trinity test site—have been painstakingly digitized and are available to today’s researchers for the first time.

A volatile medium and a race against time

First commercially produced by George Eastman (of the Eastman Kodak Company) in 1889, nitrate film is lauded by film buffs for the luminosity and high quality of its images. It was used for motion pictures through the 1940s. Many of the iconic films from Hollywood’s Golden Age, like Casablanca and Citizen Kane, were produced on nitrate film.

However, nitrate film is highly combustible and becomes even more unstable over time as it decomposes. When new, nitrate film can be ignited by the heat of a single cigarette. When partially decomposed, it can spontaneously ignite at temperatures as low as 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Once ignited, the film burns rapidly and is almost impossible to extinguish because it produces its own oxygen, along with toxic gases. These volatile properties caused several tragic movie theater and film vault fires, leading to the end of nitrate film production in the early 1950s.

According to NSRC motion picture film archivist Megan Kilidjian, the unstable nature of nitrate film makes it difficult to store in an archive. If not kept at a cool temperature in low humidity and with proper ventilation, the film becomes sticky, hardens, and eventually disintegrates into a brown powder. It also produces toxic gases as it deteriorates, which can attack nearby acetate- and polyester-based films.

Lessons from lost footage

Due to the instability of the medium, three of the nitrate film reels rediscovered in the NSRC collections were too deteriorated to preserve or digitize and had to be destroyed. Sadly, the information they contained—original footage from the 1945 and 1946 Trinity and Crossroads tests—was lost forever.

“We took them out to the high explosives range and blew them up . . . after doing all of the necessary paperwork with the Waste Management division, of course,” said Lab senior historian Alan Carr.

The loss motivated action. “Faced with the potential of losing more invaluable footage from the early history of nuclear testing, Kilidjian and the NSRC team rose to the challenge of safely and effectively preserving and digitizing the remaining 65 reels of nitrate film in their collections,” said Nanette Mayfield, leader of the NSRC Digital Collections group.

The right tools for the task

To repair and scan the films, Kilidjian followed modern motion picture film preservation standards—a complex process with which she is experienced—and Lab safety policies.

“Once identified, we had to store [the reels] in a special freezer that met National Fire Protection Association 40 standards developed specifically for the handling and storage of nitrate film, until we could develop a plan that met all necessary health and safety requirements,” Kilidjian said.

“To store the films after digitization, we purchased two new safes with built-in air circulation systems that complied with General Services Administration requirements and the Lab’s health and safety policies. We also acquired a new film scanner and a fire-resistant table for film prep. I had to wear a fire-resistant long-sleeve shirt and apron, a face mask, and gloves whenever I handled the film.”

Aside from the three that were unsalvageable, most of the reels were in remarkably good condition, although some required intensive cleaning to remove built-up rust, a result of many years of storage in unventilated film cans. A few also contained deteriorated sections of film that had to be removed. The preservation and digitization project was originally scheduled to begin in late 2022, but shipping delays with the safes pushed the date to the following summer. The project was completed by August 2023 over nine weeks.

Why are these films so important?

The 65 newly digitized films are a critical resource for today’s researchers, providing irreplaceable data from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, which have not been conducted since the signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963. True to its reputation, the nitrate film provides images of fireballs and blast waves with exceptional clarity and detail.

“Since many of these nitrate films are originals, we’re able to pull even more detail from those early test shots than we could from acetate copies. Not to mention, there’s immense historical value in retaining original nitrate films from those tests,” Kilidjian said.

Watch a brief, unclassified compilation of 1948 footage from Operation Sandstone, which took place on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands.