Tsar Bomba

"Largest bomb" redirects here. For the list of most powerful nuclear weapons, see List of most powerful nuclear weapons.
For other uses, see Tsar Bomba (disambiguation).

Tsar Bomba
Ground-level view of detonation (source: Rosatom State Corporation Communications Department: Rosatom: 20-08-2020 public release)[1]
TypeThermonuclear
Place of originSoviet Union
Production history
Designer
No. built1 operational (2 "prototypes")
Specifications
Mass27,000 kg (60,000 lb)[2]
Length8 m (26 ft)[2]
Diameter2.1 m (6 ft 11 in)[2]
Detonation
mechanism
Barometric sensor[3]
Blast yield50–58 megatons of TNT (210–240 PJ)[4]

The Tsar Bomba (Russian: Царь-бомба, romanized: Tsar'-bomba, IPA: [t͡sarʲ ˈbombə], lit. 'Tsar bomb'; code name: Ivan[5] or Vanya), also known by the alphanumerical designation "AN602", was a thermonuclear aerial bomb, and the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested.[6][7] The Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov oversaw the project at Arzamas-16, while the main work of design was by Sakharov, Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babayev, Yuri Smirnov [ru], and Yuri Trutnev. The project was ordered by CPSU first secretary Nikita Khrushchev in July 1961 as part of the Soviet resumption of nuclear testing after the Test Ban Moratorium, with the detonation timed to coincide with the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).[8]

Tested on 30 October 1961, the test verified new design principles for high-yield thermonuclear charges, allowing, as its final report put it, the design of a nuclear device "of practically unlimited power".[9] The bomb was dropped by parachute from a Tu-95V aircraft, and detonated autonomously 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) above the cape Sukhoy Nos of Severny Island, Novaya Zemlya, 15 km (9.3 mi) from Mityushikha Bay, north of the Matochkin Strait.[10][11][12] The detonation was monitored by United States intelligence agencies, via a KC-135A aircraft (Operation SpeedLight)[13] in the area at the time. A secret U.S. reconnaissance aircraft named "Speed Light Alpha" monitored the blast, coming close enough to have its antiradiation paint scorched.[4][14]

The bhangmeter results and other data suggested the bomb yielded around 58 Mt (243 PJ),[15] which was the accepted yield in technical literature until 1991, when Soviet scientists revealed that their instruments indicated a yield of 50 Mt (209 PJ).[4] As they had the instrumental data and access to the test site, their yield figure has been accepted as more accurate.[4][14] In theory, the bomb would have had a yield in excess of 100 Mt (418 PJ) if it had included the uranium-238[16] tamper which featured in the design but was omitted in the test to reduce radioactive fallout.[16] As only one bomb was built to completion, that capability has never been demonstrated.[16] The remaining bomb casings are located at the Russian Atomic Weapon Museum in Sarov and the Museum of Nuclear Weapons, All-Russian Scientific Research Institute Of Technical Physics, in Snezhinsk.

Tsar Bomba was a modification of an earlier project, RN202, which used a ballistic case of the same size but a very different internal mechanism.[16] A number of published books, even some authored by those involved in product development of 602, contain inaccuracies that are replicated elsewhere,[17] including wrongly identifying Tsar Bomba as RDS-202 or RN202.

  1. ^ Bendix, Aria (1 September 2020). "A cloud of smoke and dust rises in the sky after the Tsar Bomba was detonated in October 1961". Ministry of Medium Machine Building (30-10-1961), Rosatom (20-08-2020), YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJhZ3i-HXS0 (24-08-2020), www.businessinsider.com Business Insider (September 1, 2020). Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference atomicheritage was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "The Test". atomicheritage.org & US National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. 8 August 2014. Archived from the original on 5 July 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference TsarSize was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Смотрины "Кузькиной матери". Как СССР сделал и взорвал "Царь-бомбу"". 29 October 2014., Russian
  6. ^ Lengel, Edward G. (29 August 2020). "Tsar Bomba: The Largest Atomic Test in World History". The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  7. ^ Dabrowski, Krzysztof (2021). Tsar Bomba: Live Testing of Soviet Nuclear Bombs, 1949-1962. Helion & Company. pp. v, 28, 49. ISBN 978-1-915113-37-5.
  8. ^ Wellerstein, Alex (2021). "The untold story of the world's biggest nuclear bomb". The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
  9. ^ Adamsky, V.B.; Smirnov, Yu.N. (1995). "50-мегатонный взрыв над Новой Землей [50 megaton explosion over Novaya Zemlya"]". Вопросы истории естествознания и техники.
  10. ^ Sakharov, Andrei (1990). Memoirs. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 215–225. ISBN 978-0-679-73595-3.
  11. ^ Khalturin, Vitaly I.; Rautian, Tatyana G.; Richards, Paul G.; Leith, William S. (2005). "A Review of Nuclear Testing by the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemlya, 1955–1990" (PDF). Science and Global Security. 13 (1): 1–42. Bibcode:2005S&GS...13....1K. doi:10.1080/08929880590961862. S2CID 122069080. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2006. Retrieved 14 October 2006.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference CIA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Philpott, Tom (24 January 2001). "Cold War heroics of 'Speedlight Delta' crew recognized". Kitsap Sun. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  14. ^ a b Johnson, William Robert (2 April 2009). "The Largest Nuclear Weapons". Multimegaton Weapons.
  15. ^ "The Soviet Weapons Program - The Tsar Bomba". nuclearweaponarchive.org.
  16. ^ a b c d Veselov, A.V. (2006). Tsar Bomba. Atompress. p. 7.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chernyshev was invoked but never defined (see the help page).