Peter Klusman
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2017–2020
35:06 · 182K views · Dec 11, 2012
A 1973 NBC News documentary on the US nerve gas arsenal, covering leaks in Okinawa, a Utah test that killed thousands of sheep, and the long-term hazards of storage sites. It won an Emmy.
HN commenters recommend it as a fascinating, Emmy-winning look at US chemical weapons stockpiles and their dangers.
4 comments from Hacker News
I stumbled onto this news documentary on the nerve gas stored in the US from 1973 very randomly maybe a year ago: this video . If you're interested in this type of stuff this documentary is incredible and apparently won an Emmy. The number of problems with long term are mind boggling technologically, even if people don't know its near them. The whole idea if this place got bombed it would wipe out huge amount of people in the surrounding area based on wind patterns is nuts, frankly. The whole process to dismantle and then "store" the old gas is insane.
This really fascinating documentary from the 80s about nerve gas was linked in yesterday's news posts: this video Only tangentially related but I really recommend watching. It's only 30 minutes.
The US chemical weapons program is downright frightening. Unlike these exploits which you can just leave in an office and never use (and which con subsequently go stale as people find and patch exploits), chemical weapons were stored in massive US facilities and many of them have started leaking over the years: this video
Here is the original documentary I watched. There is more information on the individual sites on more recent news and magazine sites, often referenced on wikipedia: this video