Tsar Bomba

Tsar Bomba (Russian: ????-?????, meaning literally "Emperor Bomb"), developed by the Soviet Union, is the largest nuclear explosive ever to be detonated, and is also the highest power device ever used by humans. It was detonated on October 30, 1961, as a test; this took place at a height of 4,000 metres over the Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Sea; it was dropped from a Tu-95 bomber.

Design

Tsar Bomba was a multi-stage hydrogen bomb with a yield of about 50 megatons. (The original US estimate was 57 megatons, but since 1991 all Russian sources have cited it as "only" 50 megatons http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/TsarBomba.html.) The design was capable of approximately 100 megatons. It was purposely reduced shortly before the launch, though Nikita Khrushchev initially reported a yield of 100 Mt, and cited this number in his speeches. The nuclear devices of the type used in the bomb were designed by a team of physicists headed by Academician Igor Kurchatov and included Andrei Sakharov, Victor Adamsky, Yuri Babayev, Yuri Smirnov, and Yuri Trutnev (?.?.???????, ?.?.????????, ?.?.??????, ?.?.???????, ?.?.???????).

Related Topics:
Multi-stage hydrogen bomb - Yield - Megaton - Nikita Khrushchev - Igor Kurchatov - Andrei Sakharov - Victor Adamsky - Yuri Babayev - Yuri Smirnov - Yuri Trutnev

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It was not intended for use in warfare; it was developed and tested as part of the sabre-rattling between the Soviet Union and United States in the course of the Cold War. The launch date was matched to the time of the 22nd Congress of the CPSU.

Related Topics:
United States - Cold War - Congress of the CPSU

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Excluding the nuclear device, Tsar Bomba was designed and constructed in only 14 weeks after Khrushchev initiated the project on July 10, 1961. The bomb itself weighed 27 tonnes and was 8 metres long by 2 metres wide; a special parachute (itself weighing 0.8 tonne) had to be designed to allow it to be dropped from an airplane. A possibly apocryphal story claims that the fabrication of this parachute needed so much raw nylon that the negligible Soviet nylon hosiery industry was noticeably disrupted.

Related Topics:
July 10 - 1961 - Tonne - Parachute - Apocryphal - Hosiery

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The Tsar Bomba had its yield scaled down by replacing the uranium fusion tamper (which amplifies the reaction greatly) with one made of lead to eliminate fast fission by the fusion neutrons. For this reason it was actually a very "clean" test, with approximately 97% of the energy coming from fusion rather than fission (fusion produces no fallout, unlike a fission explosion).

Related Topics:
Uranium - Lead

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