The most powerful explosion of a thermonuclear bomb. Soviet Tsar Bomba An 602 thermonuclear aerial bomb

More than 55 years ago, on October 30, 1961, one of the most significant events Cold War. At the training ground located on Novaya Zemlya, Soviet Union tested the most powerful thermonuclear device in human history - a hydrogen bomb with a capacity of 58 megatons of TNT. Officially, this ammunition was called AN602 (“product 602”), but it entered the historical annals under its unofficial name - “Tsar Bomba”.

This bomb has another name - “Kuzka’s Mother”. It was born after the famous speech of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Khrushchev, during which he promised to show the United States “Kuzka’s mother” and tapped his shoe on the podium.

The best Soviet physicists worked on the creation of “product 602”: Sakharov, Trutnev, Adamsky, Babaev, Smirnov. Academician Kurchatov led this project; work on creating a bomb began in 1954.

The Soviet Tsar Bomba was dropped from a Tu-95 strategic bomber, which was specially converted for this mission. The explosion occurred at an altitude of 3.7 thousand meters. Seismographs around the world recorded the strongest vibrations, and the blast wave circled three times Earth. The explosion of the Tsar Bomba seriously frightened the West and showed that it was better not to mess with the Soviet Union. A powerful propaganda effect was achieved, and the capabilities of the Soviet nuclear weapons.

But the most important thing was something else: the tests of the Tsar Bomba made it possible to test the theoretical calculations of scientists, and it was proven that the power of thermonuclear ammunition is practically unlimited.

And this, by the way, was true. After the successful tests, Khrushchev joked that they wanted to explode 100 megatons, but were afraid to break the windows in Moscow. Indeed, they initially planned to detonate a hundred-megaton charge, but then they did not want to apply too much big damage polygon.

The history of the creation of the Tsar Bomba

Since the mid-50s, work began in the USA and USSR on the creation of second-generation nuclear weapons - thermo nuclear bomb. In November 1952, the United States detonated the first such device, and eight months later the Soviet Union conducted similar tests. At the same time, the Soviet thermonuclear bomb was much more advanced than its American counterpart; it could easily be placed in the bomb bay of an aircraft and used in practice. Thermonuclear weapons were ideally suited for the implementation of the Soviet concept of single but deadly strikes on the enemy, because theoretically the power of thermonuclear charges is unlimited.

In the early 60s, the USSR began developing huge (if not monstrous) nuclear charges. In particular, it was planned to create missiles with thermonuclear warheads weighing 40 and 75 tons. The explosion power of a forty-ton warhead was supposed to be 150 megatons. At the same time, work was underway to create heavy-duty aviation ammunition. However, the development of such “monsters” required practical tests, during which bombing techniques would be tested, damage from explosions would be assessed, and, most importantly, the theoretical calculations of physicists would be tested.

In general, it should be noted that before the advent of reliable intercontinental ballistic missiles, the problem of delivering nuclear warheads was very acute in the USSR. There was a project for a huge self-propelled torpedo with a powerful thermonuclear charge (about a hundred megatons), which was planned to be blown up off the US coast. A special submarine was designed to launch this torpedo. According to the developers, the explosion was supposed to cause a powerful tsunami and flood the most important US cities located on the coast. The project was led by Academician Sakharov, but for technical reasons it was never implemented.

Initially, the development of a super-powerful nuclear bomb was carried out by NII-1011 (Chelyabinsk-70, currently RFNC-VNIITF). At this stage, the ammunition was called RN-202, but in 1958 the project was closed by a decision of the country's top leadership. There is a legend that “Kuzka’s Mother” was developed by Soviet scientists in record time. short time- only 112 days. This doesn't quite match really. Although, indeed, the final stage of creating the ammunition, which took place in KB-11, took only 112 days. But it is not entirely correct to say that the Tsar Bomba is simply a renamed and modified RN-202; in fact, significant improvements have been made to the design of the ammunition.

Initially, the power of AN602 was supposed to be more than 100 megatons, and its design had three stages. But due to significant radioactive contamination of the explosion site, they decided to abandon the third stage, which reduced the power of the ammunition by almost half (to 50 megatons).

Another serious problem that the developers of the Tsar Bomba project had to solve was the preparation of a carrier aircraft for this unique and non-standard nuclear charge, since the serial Tu-95 was not suitable for this mission. This question was raised back in 1954 in a conversation that took place between two academicians - Kurchatov and Tupolev.

After the drawings have been made thermonuclear bomb, it turned out that the placement of ammunition required serious modifications to the aircraft's bomb bay. The fuselage tanks were removed from the vehicle, and for the suspension of the AN602, a new beam holder was installed on the aircraft with a much greater carrying capacity and three bomber locks instead of one. The new bomber received the index "B".

To ensure the safety of the aircraft crew, the Tsar Bomba was equipped with three parachutes at once: exhaust, braking and main. They slowed down the fall of the bomb, allowing the plane to fly to a safe distance after being dropped.

Conversions of the aircraft to drop a superbomb began back in 1956. In the same year, the aircraft was accepted by the customer and tested. An exact mock-up of the future bomb was even dropped from the Tu-95V.

On October 17, 1961, Nikita Khrushchev, at the opening of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, announced that the USSR was successfully testing new super-powerful nuclear weapons, and that ammunition with a yield of 50 megatons would soon be ready. Khrushchev also said that the Soviet Union also has a 100-megaton bomb, but is not going to detonate it yet. A few days later, the UN General Assembly appealed to the Soviet government with a request not to test a new megabomb, but this call was not heeded.

Description of the AN602 design

The AN602 aircraft bomb is a cylindrical body with a characteristic streamlined shape with tail fins. Its length is 8 meters, its maximum diameter is 2.1 meters, and it weighs 26.5 tons. The dimensions of this bomb completely replicate the dimensions of the RN-202 ammunition.

The initial estimated power of the aerial bomb was 100 megatons, but then it was reduced by almost half. The Tsar Bomba was conceived as a three-stage one: the first stage was nuclear charge(power of the order of 1.5 megatons), it launched the second-stage thermonuclear reaction (50 megatons), which, in turn, initiated the third-stage Jekyll-Hyde nuclear reaction (also 50 megatons). However, the detonation of ammunition of this design was almost guaranteed to lead to significant radioactive contamination of the test site, so they decided to abandon the third stage. The uranium contained in it was replaced by lead.

Conducting tests of the Tsar Bomba and their results

Despite the previous modernization, the aircraft still had to be redesigned immediately before the tests themselves. Together with the parachute system, the actual ammunition turned out to be larger and heavier than planned. Therefore, the bomb bay flaps had to be removed from the plane. In addition, it was pre-painted with white reflective paint.

On October 30, 1961, a Tu-95B with a bomb on board took off from the Olenya airfield and headed towards the test site on Novaya Zemlya. The bomber's crew consisted of nine people. The Tu-95A laboratory aircraft also took part in the tests.

The bomb was dropped two hours after takeoff at an altitude of 10.5 thousand meters above the conditional target located on the territory of the Dry Nose training ground. The detonation was carried out barothermally at an altitude of 4.2 thousand meters (according to other sources, at an altitude of 3.9 thousand meters or 4.5 thousand meters). The parachute system slowed down the fall of the ammunition, so the A602 dropped to the calculated altitude in 188 seconds. During this time, the carrier aircraft managed to move 39 km away from the epicenter. The shock wave caught up with the plane at a distance of 115 km, but it managed to continue its flight and returned safely to base. According to some sources, the explosion of the Tsar Bomba was much more powerful than planned (58.6 or even 75 megatons).

The test results exceeded all expectations. After the explosion, a fireball with a diameter of more than nine kilometers was formed, the nuclear mushroom reached a height of 67 km, and the diameter of its “cap” was 97 km. The light radiation could cause burns at a distance of 100 km, and the sound wave reached Dikson Island, located 800 km east of Novaya Zemlya. The seismic wave generated by the explosion circled the globe three times. However, the tests did not lead to significant contamination environment. Scientists landed at the epicenter two hours after the explosion.

After the tests, the commander and navigator of the Tu-95V aircraft were awarded the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union, eight KB-11 employees received the titles of Heroes of Socialist Labor, and several dozen more scientists from the design bureau received Lenin Prizes.

During the tests, all previously planned goals were achieved. The theoretical calculations of scientists were tested, the military gained practical experience in using unprecedented weapons, and the country's leadership received a powerful foreign policy and propaganda trump card. It was clearly shown that the Soviet Union could achieve parity with the United States in the lethality of nuclear weapons.

The A602 bomb was not originally intended for practical military use. In essence, it was a demonstrator of the capabilities of the Soviet military industry. The Tu-95B simply could not fly with such a combat load to US territory - it would simply not have enough fuel. But, nevertheless, the Tsar Bomba was tested in the West desired result- just two years later, in August 1963, an agreement was signed in Moscow between the USSR, Great Britain and the USA banning nuclear tests in space, on land or under water. Since then, only underground nuclear explosions have been carried out. In 1990, the USSR announced a unilateral moratorium on any nuclear testing. Until now, Russia adheres to it.

By the way, after the successful test of the Tsar Bomba, Soviet scientists put forward several proposals to create even more powerful thermonuclear weapons, from 200 to 500 megatons, but they were never implemented. The main opponents of such plans were the military. The reason was simple: such weapons did not have the slightest practical meaning. The explosion of A602 created a zone of complete destruction equal in area to the territory of Paris, why create even more powerful ammunition. In addition, they simply did not have the necessary means of delivery, nor strategic aviation, nor ballistic missiles At that time, they simply could not lift such weight.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them

October 30, 1961 at the training ground New Earth The Soviet AN606 thermonuclear bomb with a yield of 57 megatons was successfully tested. This power was 10 times greater than the total power of all ammunition that was used during World War II. AN606 is the most destructive weapons throughout the history of mankind.

Place

Nuclear testing in the Soviet Union began in 1949 at the Semipalatinsk test site, located in Kazakhstan. Its area was 18,500 square meters. km. It was removed from places of permanent residence of people. But not so much that one could experience the most powerful weapon. Therefore, nuclear charges of low and medium power were detonated in the Kazakh steppe. They were necessary for debugging nuclear technology, studying the influence damaging factors for equipment and structures. That is, these were, first of all, scientific and technical tests.

But in conditions of military competition, tests were also necessary in which the emphasis was placed on their political component, on demonstrating the crushing power of the Soviet bomb.

There was also the Totsky training ground in the Orenburg region. But it was smaller than Semipalatinsk. And besides, it was located in even more dangerous proximity to cities and villages.

In 1954, they found a place where it was possible to test ultra-high-power nuclear weapons.

This place became the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. It fully met the requirements for the test site where the super-bomb was to be tested. Was as far away as possible from large settlements and communications, and after its closure should have had minimal impact on the subsequent economic activities of the region. It was also necessary to conduct a study of the impact nuclear explosion on ships and submarines.

The islands of Novaya Zemlya best met these and other requirements. Their area was more than four times larger than the Semipalatinsk test site and amounted to 85 thousand square meters. km., which is approximately equal to the area of ​​the Netherlands.

The problem of the population that could suffer from explosions was solved radically: 298 indigenous Nenets were evicted from the archipelago, providing them with housing in Arkhangelsk, as well as in the village of Amderma and on the island of Kolguev. At the same time, the migrants were employed, and the elderly were given a pension, despite the fact that they had no work experience.

They were replaced by builders.

The nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya is by no means an open field onto which bombers drop their deadly cargo, but a whole complex of complex engineering structures and administrative and economic services. These include experimental scientific and engineering services, energy and water supply services, a fighter aviation regiment, a transport aviation detachment, a division of ships and vessels special purpose, emergency rescue squad, communications center, units logistics support, Living spaces.

Three test sites were created at the test site: Black Lip, Matochkin Shar and Sukhoi Nos.

In the summer of 1954, 10 construction battalions were delivered to the archipelago and began building the first site, Black Lip. Builders spent the Arctic winter in canvas tents, preparing Guba for an underwater explosion scheduled for September 1955 - the first in the USSR.

Product

The development of the Tsar Bomba, designated AN602, began simultaneously with the construction of the test site on Novaya Zemlya - in 1955. And it ended with the creation of a bomb ready for testing in September 1961, that is, a month before the explosion.

Development began at NII-1011 of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building (now the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics, VNIITF), which was located in Snezhinsk Chelyabinsk region. Actually, the institute was founded on May 5, 1955, primarily to implement a grandiose thermonuclear project. And only then his activities spread to the creation of 70 percent of all Soviet nuclear bombs, missiles and torpedoes.

NII-1011 was headed by the scientific director of the institute, Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Shchelkin, together with a group of leading nuclear scientists, took part in the creation and testing of the first atomic bomb RDS-1. It was he who, in 1949, was the last to leave the tower with a charge installed in it, sealed the entrance and pressed the “Start” button.

Work on the creation of the AN602 bomb, to which the country's leading physicists, including Kurchatov and Sakharov, were involved, proceeded without any particular complications. But the unique power of the bomb required enormous amounts of calculations and design work. And also conducting experiments with smaller charges at the test site - first in Semipalatinsk, and then on Novaya Zemlya.

The initial project involved the creation of a bomb that would certainly break out windows, if not in Moscow, but certainly in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, and even in northern Finland. Since a capacity exceeding 100 megatons was planned.

Initially, the bomb's operation scheme was three-link. First, a plutonium charge with a power of 1.5 Mt was triggered. He ignited a thermonuclear fusion reaction, the power of which was 50 Mt. The fast neutrons released as a result of the thermonuclear reaction triggered the nuclear fission reaction in the uranium-238 blocks. The contribution of this reaction to the “common cause” was 50 Mt.

This scheme led to extremely high level radioactive contamination over a vast territory. And there was no need to talk about “the minimal impact of the landfill on the subsequent economic activity of the region after its closure.” Therefore, it was decided to abandon the final phase - uranium fission. But at the same time, the real power of the resulting bomb turned out to be slightly greater than it was based on calculations. Instead of 51.5 Mt, on October 30, 1961, 57 Mt exploded on Novaya Zemlya.

The creation of the AN602 bomb was completed not in Snezhinsk, but in the famous KB-11, located in Arzamas-16. The final revision took 112 days.

The result was a monster weighing 26,500 kg, 800 cm long and maximum diameter 210 cm.

The dimensions and weight of the bomb were determined already in 1955. In order to get it into the air, it was necessary to significantly modernize the largest bomber at that time, the Tu-95. And this, too, was not an easy job, since the standard Tu-95 could not lift the Tsar Bomba into the air; with the aircraft weighing 84 tons, it could only carry 11 tons of combat load. The fuel share was 90 tons. In addition, the bomb did not fit in the bomb bay. Therefore, it was necessary to remove the fuselage fuel tanks. And also replace the beam bomb holders with more powerful ones.

Work on modernizing the bomber, called the Tu-95 V and manufactured in a single copy, took place from 1956 to 1958. Flight tests continued for another year, during which the technique of dropping a mock-up bomb of the same weight and dimensions was tested. In 1959, the aircraft was recognized as fully satisfying the requirements for it.

Result

The main result, as planned, was political and exceeded all expectations. The explosion of previously unknown force made a very strong impression on the leaders Western countries. He forced us to take a more serious look at the capabilities of the Soviet military-industrial complex and somewhat reduce our militaristic ambitions.

The events of October 30, 1961 developed as follows. Early in the morning, two bombers took off from a distant airfield - a Tu-95 B with the AN602 product on board and a Tu-16 with research equipment and film and photographic equipment.

At 11:32 a.m., the commander of the Tu-95, Major Andrei Egorovich Durnovtsev, dropped a bomb from an altitude of 10,500 meters. The major returned to the airfield as a lieutenant colonel and Hero of the Soviet Union.

The bomb, having descended by parachute to a level of 3700 meters, exploded. By this time, the planes had managed to move 39 kilometers away from the epicenter.

Test leaders - Minister of Medium Engineering E.P. Slavsky and Commander-in-Chief missile forces Marshal K.S. Moskalenko - at the time of the explosion they were on board the Il-14 at a distance of more than 500 kilometers. Despite cloudy weather, they saw a bright flash. At the same time, the plane was clearly shaken by the shock wave. The minister and marshal immediately sent a telegram to Khrushchev.

One of the groups of researchers, from a distance of 270 kilometers from the point of the explosion, saw not only a bright flash through protective dark glasses, but even felt the impact of the light pulse. In an abandoned village - 400 kilometers from the epicenter - they were destroyed wooden houses, and the stone ones lost their roofs, windows and doors.

The mushroom from the explosion reached a height of 68 kilometers. At the same time, the shock wave, reflected from the ground, prevented the ball of plasma from descending to the ground, which would have incinerated everything in a vast space.

The various effects were monstrous. The seismic wave circled the globe three times. The light radiation was capable of causing third degree burns at a distance of 100 km. The roar from the explosion was heard within a radius of 800 km. Due to ionizing effects, radio interference was observed in Europe for more than an hour. For the same reason, communication with two bombers was lost for 30 minutes.

The test turned out to be surprisingly clean. Radioactive radiation within a radius of three kilometers from the epicenter two hours after the explosion was only 1 milliroentgen per hour.

The Tu-95B, despite the fact that it was 39 kilometers from the epicenter, was thrown into a dive by the shock wave. And the pilot was able to regain control of the plane only after losing 800 meters of altitude. The entire bomber, including the propellers, was painted with white reflective paint. But upon inspection, it was discovered that the paint had faded in fragments. And some structural elements even melted and became deformed.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the AN602 case could also accommodate a 100-megaton filling.

55 years ago, on October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union tested the world's most powerful thermonuclear device at the Novaya Zemlya test site (Arkhangelsk region) - an experimental aircraft hydrogen bomb with a capacity of about 58 megatons of TNT ("product 602"; unofficial names: "Tsar Bomba", "Kuzkina Mother"). The thermonuclear charge was dropped from a converted Tu-95 strategic bomber and detonated at an altitude of 3.7 thousand meters above the ground.

Nuclear (atomic) weapons are based on an uncontrolled chain reaction of fission of heavy atomic nuclei.

To carry out the fission chain reaction, either uranium-235 or plutonium-239 (less commonly, uranium-233) is used. Thermonuclear weapons (hydrogen bombs) involve the use of energy from an uncontrolled nuclear fusion reaction, that is, the transformation of light elements into heavier ones (for example, two atoms of “heavy hydrogen”, deuterium, into one helium atom). Thermonuclear weapons have a greater possible explosion power compared to conventional nuclear bombs.

Development thermonuclear weapons in USSR

In the USSR, the development of thermonuclear weapons began in the late 1940s. Andrei Sakharov, Yuli Khariton, Igor Tamm and other scientists in Design Bureau No. 11 (KB-11, known as Arzamas-16; now - Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, RFNC-VNIIEF; city of Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region). In 1949, the first thermonuclear weapon project was developed. The first Soviet hydrogen bomb, RDS-6s, with a yield of 400 kilotons, was tested on August 12, 1953 at the Semipalatinsk test site (Kazakh SSR, now Kazakhstan). Unlike the United States, which tested the first thermonuclear explosive device, Ivy Mike, on November 1, 1952, the RDS-6s was a full-fledged bomb capable of being delivered by bomber. Ivy Mike weighed 73.8 tons and was more like a small factory in size, but the power of its explosion was a record 10.4 megatons at that time.

"Tsar Torpedo"

In the early 1950s, when it became clear that the thermonuclear charge was the most promising in terms of explosion energy power, a discussion began in the USSR about the method of its delivery. Missile weapons was imperfect at that time; The USSR Air Force did not have bombers capable of delivering heavy charges.

Therefore, on September 12, 1952, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Joseph Stalin signed the decree “On the design and construction of object 627” - a nuclear submarine power plant. It was initially assumed that it would carry a torpedo with a T-15 thermonuclear charge with a power of up to 100 megatons, the main target of which would be enemy naval bases and port cities. The main developer of the torpedo was Andrei Sakharov.

Subsequently, in his book “Memoirs,” the scientist wrote that Rear Admiral Pyotr Fomin, who was responsible for Project 627 from the navy, was shocked by the “cannibalistic character” of the T-15. According to Sakharov, Fomin told him “that military sailors are used to fighting an armed enemy in open battle” and that for him “the very thought of such a thing is disgusting.” mass murder"Subsequently, this conversation influenced Sakharov's decision to engage in human rights activities. The T-15 was never put into service due to unsuccessful tests in the mid-1950s, and the Project 627 submarine received conventional, non-nuclear torpedoes.

Heavy duty charge projects

The decision to create an aircraft super-powerful thermonuclear charge was made by the government of the USSR in November 1955. Initially, the development of the bomb was carried out by the Scientific Research Institute No. 1011 (NII-1011; known as Chelyabinsk-70; now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - the All-Russian Research Institute of Technical Physics named after. Academician E.I. Zababakhin, RFNC-VNIITF; city of Snezhinsk, Chelyabinsk region).

Since the end of 1955, under the leadership of the chief designer of the institute, Kirill Shchelkin, work has been carried out on the “product 202” (estimated capacity - approximately 30 megatons). However, in 1958, the country's top leadership closed work in this area.

Two years later, on July 10, 1961, at a meeting with the developers and creators of nuclear weapons, the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikita Khrushchev announced the decision of the country's leadership to begin developing and testing a 100-megaton hydrogen bomb. The work was entrusted to KB-11 employees. Under the leadership of Andrei Sakharov, a group of theoretical physicists developed “product 602” (AN-602). A body already manufactured at NII-1011 was used for it.

Characteristics of the Tsar Bomba

The bomb was a streamlined ballistic body with a tail unit.

The dimensions of “product 602” were the same as those of “product 202”. Length - 8 m, diameter - 2.1 m, weight - 26.5 tons.

The estimated charge power was 100 megatons of TNT. But after experts assessed the impact of such an explosion on the environment, it was decided to test a bomb with a reduced charge.

To transport the aerial bomb, the Tu-95 heavy strategic bomber was converted and received the index "B". Due to the impossibility of placing it in the bomb bay of the vehicle, a special device was developed on a suspension, which ensured that the bomb was lifted to the fuselage and secured to three synchronously controlled locks.

The safety of the crew of the carrier aircraft was ensured by a specially designed system of several parachutes near the bomb: exhaust, brake and main with an area of ​​1.6 thousand square meters. m. They were thrown out of the rear part of the hull one after another, slowing down the fall of the bomb (to a speed of approximately 20-25 m/s). During this time, the Tu-95V managed to fly away from the explosion site to a safe distance.

The leadership of the USSR did not hide its intention to test a powerful thermonuclear device. Nikita Khrushchev announced the upcoming test on October 17, 1961 at the opening of the 20th Congress of the CPSU: I want to say that our tests of new nuclear weapons are going very successfully. We will complete these tests soon. Apparently at the end of October. Finally, we will probably detonate a hydrogen bomb with a yield of 50 million tons of TNT. We said that we have a bomb of 100 million tons of TNT. And that's true. But we will not detonate such a bomb."

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on October 27, 1961, in which it called on the USSR to refrain from testing a super-powerful bomb.

Trial

The test of the experimental “product 602” took place on October 30, 1961 at the Novaya Zemlya test site. A Tu-95B with a crew of nine (lead pilot - Andrey Durnovtsev, lead navigator - Ivan Kleshch) took off from the Olenya military airfield to Kola Peninsula. An aerial bomb was dropped from a height of 10.5 km onto the site of the Northern Island of the archipelago, in the area of ​​the Matochkin Shar Strait. The explosion occurred at an altitude of 3.7 km from the ground and 4.2 km above sea level, for 188 seconds. after the bomb was separated from the bomber.

The flash lasted 65-70 seconds. The “nuclear mushroom” rose to a height of 67 km, the diameter of the hot dome reached 20 km. The cloud retained its shape for a long time and was visible at a distance of several hundred kilometers. Despite the continuous cloud cover, the light flash was observed at a distance of more than 1 thousand km. The shock wave circled the globe three times, due to electromagnetic radiation for 40-50 minutes. Radio communication was interrupted for many hundreds of kilometers from the test site. Radioactive contamination in the area of ​​the epicenter turned out to be small (1 milliroentgen per hour), so research personnel were able to work there without danger to health 2 hours after the explosion.

According to experts, the power of the superbomb was about 58 megatons of TNT. This is approximately three thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima in 1945 (13 kilotons).

The test was filmed both from the ground and from the Tu-95V, which at the time of the explosion managed to move more than 45 km away, as well as from an Il-14 aircraft (at the time of the explosion it was at a distance of 55 km). At the latter, the tests were observed by Marshal of the Soviet Union Kirill Moskalenko and Minister of Medium Engineering of the USSR Efim Slavsky.

World reaction to the Soviet superbomb

The demonstration by the Soviet Union of the possibility of creating thermonuclear charges of unlimited power pursued the goal of establishing parity in nuclear testing, primarily with the United States.

After lengthy negotiations, on August 5, 1963 in Moscow, representatives of the USA, USSR and Great Britain signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in outer space, underwater and on the surface of the Earth. From the moment it came into force, the USSR produced only underground nuclear tests. The last explosion was carried out on October 24, 1990 on Novaya Zemlya, after which the Soviet Union announced a unilateral moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. Currently, Russia also adheres to this moratorium.

Creator Awards

In 1962, for the successful testing of the most powerful thermonuclear bomb, crew members of the carrier aircraft Andrei Durnovtsev and Ivan Kleshch were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Eight employees of KB-11 were awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (of which Andrei Sakharov received it for the third time), 40 employees became laureates of the Lenin Prize.

"Tsar Bomba" in museums

Full-size models of the Tsar Bomb (without control systems and warheads) are stored in the museums of the RFNC-VNIIEF in Sarov (the first domestic museum of nuclear weapons; opened in 1992) and the RFNC-VNIITF in Snezhinsk.

In September 2015, the Sarov bomb was exhibited at the Moscow exhibition “70 years of the nuclear industry. Chain reaction of success” in the Central Manege.

Tsar Bomba is the name of the AN602 hydrogen bomb, which was tested in the Soviet Union in 1961. This bomb was the most powerful ever detonated. Its power was such that the flash from the explosion was visible 1000 km away, and the nuclear mushroom rose almost 70 km.

The Tsar Bomba was a hydrogen bomb. It was created in Kurchatov's laboratory. The power of the bomb was such that it would have been enough to destroy 3800 Hiroshimas.

Let's remember the history of its creation.

At the beginning of the “atomic age,” the United States and the Soviet Union entered into a race not only in numbers atomic bombs, but also in terms of their power.

USSR, which acquired atomic weapons later than a competitor, sought to level the situation by creating more advanced and more powerful devices.

The development of a thermonuclear device codenamed “Ivan” was started in the mid-1950s by a group of physicists led by Academician Kurchatov. The group involved in this project included Andrei Sakharov, Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babaev, Yuri Trunov and Yuri Smirnov.

During research work scientists also tried to find the limits of the maximum power of a thermonuclear explosive device.

The theoretical possibility of obtaining energy by thermonuclear fusion was known even before World War II, but it was the war and the subsequent arms race that raised the question of creating technical device to practically create this reaction. It is known that in Germany in 1944, work was carried out to initiate thermonuclear fusion by compression nuclear fuel using conventional charges explosive- but they were unsuccessful, since it was not possible to obtain the required temperatures and pressure. The USA and the USSR have been developing thermonuclear weapons since the 40s, almost simultaneously testing the first thermonuclear devices in the early 50s. In 1952, the United States exploded a charge with a yield of 10.4 megatons on the Eniwetak Atoll (which is 450 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki), and in 1953, the USSR tested a device with a yield of 400 kilotons.

The designs of the first thermonuclear devices were poorly suited for real combat use. For example, the device tested by the United States in 1952 was a ground-based structure the height of a 2-story building and weighing over 80 tons. Liquid thermonuclear fuel was stored in it using a huge refrigeration unit. Therefore, in the future mass production thermonuclear weapons were carried out using solid fuel - lithium-6 deuteride. In 1954, the United States tested a device based on it at Bikini Atoll, and in 1955, a new Soviet thermonuclear bomb was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site. In 1957, tests of a hydrogen bomb were carried out in Great Britain.

Design research lasted for several years, and the final stage of development of “product 602” occurred in 1961 and took 112 days.

The AN602 bomb had a three-stage design: the nuclear charge of the first stage (calculated contribution to the explosion power is 1.5 megatons) triggered a thermonuclear reaction in the second stage (contribution to the explosion power - 50 megatons), and it, in turn, initiated the so-called nuclear “ Jekyll-Hyde reaction" (nuclear fission in uranium-238 blocks under the influence of fast neutrons generated as a result of the thermonuclear fusion reaction) in the third stage (another 50 megatons of power), so that the total calculated power of AN602 was 101.5 megatons.

However original version was rejected because in this form it would have caused extremely powerful radiation contamination (which, however, according to calculations, would still have been seriously inferior to that caused by much less powerful American devices).
As a result, it was decided not to use the “Jekyll-Hyde reaction” in the third stage of the bomb and to replace the uranium components with their lead equivalent. This reduced the estimated total power of the explosion by almost half (to 51.5 megatons).

Another limitation for the developers was the capabilities of aircraft. The first version of a bomb weighing 40 tons was rejected by aircraft designers from the Tupolev Design Bureau - the carrier aircraft would not be able to deliver such a cargo to the target.

As a result, the parties reached a compromise - nuclear scientists reduced the weight of the bomb by half, and aviation designers prepared for it special modification bomber Tu-95 - Tu-95V.

It turned out that it would not be possible to place a charge in the bomb bay under any circumstances, so the Tu-95V had to carry the AN602 to the target on a special external sling.

In fact, the carrier aircraft was ready in 1959, but nuclear physicists were instructed not to speed up work on the bomb - just at that moment there were signs of a decrease in tension in international relations in the world.

At the beginning of 1961, however, the situation worsened again, and the project was revived.

The final weight of the bomb including the parachute system was 26.5 tons. The product turned out to have several names at once - “ Big Ivan", "Tsar Bomba" and "Kuzka's Mother". The latter stuck to the bomb after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s speech to the Americans, in which he promised to show them “Kuzka’s mother.”

In 1961, Khrushchev quite openly spoke to foreign diplomats about the fact that the Soviet Union was planning to test a super-powerful thermonuclear charge in the near future. October 17, 1961 about upcoming tests Soviet leader stated in a report at the XXII Party Congress.

The test site was determined to be the Sukhoi Nos test site on Novaya Zemlya. Preparations for the explosion were completed in late October 1961.

The Tu-95B carrier aircraft was based at the airfield in Vaenga. Here, in a special room, final preparations for testing were carried out.

On the morning of October 30, 1961, the crew of pilot Andrei Durnovtsev received an order to fly to the test site area and drop a bomb.

Taking off from the airfield in Vaenga, the Tu-95B reached its design point two hours later. Bomb on parachute system was dropped from a height of 10,500 meters, after which the pilots immediately began to move the car away from the dangerous area.

At 11:33 Moscow time, an explosion was carried out at an altitude of 4 km above the target.

The power of the explosion significantly exceeded the calculated one (51.5 megatons) and ranged from 57 to 58.6 megatons in TNT equivalent.

Operating principle:

The action of a hydrogen bomb is based on the use of energy released during the thermonuclear fusion reaction of light nuclei. It is this reaction that takes place in the depths of stars, where, under the influence of ultra-high temperatures and enormous pressure, hydrogen nuclei collide and merge into heavier helium nuclei. During the reaction, part of the mass of hydrogen nuclei is converted into a large number of energy - thanks to this, stars release huge amounts of energy constantly. Scientists copied this reaction using isotopes of hydrogen - deuterium and tritium, which gave it the name "hydrogen bomb". Initially, liquid isotopes of hydrogen were used to produce charges, and later lithium-6 deuteride was used, solid, a compound of deuterium and an isotope of lithium.

Lithium-6 deuteride is the main component of the hydrogen bomb, thermonuclear fuel. It already stores deuterium, and the lithium isotope serves as the raw material for the formation of tritium. To start a thermonuclear fusion reaction, it is necessary to create high temperature and pressure, and also to isolate tritium from lithium-6. These conditions are provided as follows.

The shell of the container for thermonuclear fuel is made of uranium-238 and plastic, and a conventional nuclear charge with a power of several kilotons is placed next to the container - it is called a trigger, or initiator charge of a hydrogen bomb. During the explosion of the plutonium initiator charge under the influence of powerful X-ray radiation, the container shell turns into plasma, compressing thousands of times, which creates the necessary high pressure and enormous temperature. At the same time, neutrons emitted by plutonium interact with lithium-6, forming tritium. Deuterium and tritium nuclei interact under the influence of ultra-high temperature and pressure, which leads to a thermonuclear explosion.

If you make several layers of uranium-238 and lithium-6 deuteride, then each of them will add its own power to the explosion of a bomb - that is, such a “puff” allows you to increase the power of the explosion almost unlimitedly. Thanks to this, a hydrogen bomb can be made of almost any power, and it will be much cheaper than a conventional nuclear bomb of the same power.

Witnesses of the test say that they have never seen anything like this in their lives. The nuclear mushroom of the explosion rose to a height of 67 kilometers, the light radiation could potentially cause third-degree burns at a distance of up to 100 kilometers.

Observers reported that at the epicenter of the explosion, the rocks took a surprisingly flat shape, and the ground turned into some kind of military parade ground. Complete destruction was achieved over an area equal to the territory of Paris.

Ionization of the atmosphere caused radio interference even hundreds of kilometers from the test site for about 40 minutes. The lack of radio communication convinced the scientists that the tests went as well as possible. The shock wave resulting from the explosion of the Tsar Bomba circled the globe three times. Sound wave, generated by the explosion, reached Dikson Island at a distance of about 800 kilometers.

Despite the heavy clouds, witnesses saw the explosion even at a distance of thousands of kilometers and could describe it.

Radioactive contamination from the explosion turned out to be minimal, as the developers had planned - more than 97% of the power of the explosion was provided by the thermonuclear fusion reaction, which practically did not create radioactive contamination.

This allowed scientists to begin studying the test results on the experimental field within two hours after the explosion.

The explosion of the Tsar Bomba really made an impression on the whole world. She turned out to be more powerful than the most powerful American bomb four times.

There was a theoretical possibility of creating even more powerful charges, but it was decided to abandon the implementation of such projects.

Oddly enough, the main skeptics turned out to be the military. From their point of view, practical sense similar weapons didn't have. How do you order him to be delivered to the “den of the enemy”? The USSR already had missiles, but they were unable to fly to America with such a load.

Strategic bombers were also unable to fly to the United States with such “luggage.” In addition, they became easy targets for air defense systems.

Atomic scientists turned out to be much more enthusiastic. Plans were put forward to place several super-bombs with a capacity of 200–500 megatons off the coast of the United States, the explosion of which would cause a giant tsunami that would literally wash away America.

Academician Andrei Sakharov, future human rights activist and laureate Nobel Prize peace, put forward another plan. “The carrier could be a large torpedo launched from a submarine. I fantasized that it was possible to develop a ramjet water-steam nuclear jet engine for such a torpedo. The target of an attack from a distance of several hundred kilometers should be enemy ports. A war at sea is lost if the ports are destroyed, the sailors assure us of this. The body of such a torpedo can be very durable; it will not be afraid of mines and barrage nets. Of course, the destruction of ports - both by a surface explosion of a torpedo with a 100-megaton charge that “jumped out” of the water, and by an underwater explosion - is inevitably associated with very large casualties,” the scientist wrote in his memoirs.

Sakharov told Vice Admiral Pyotr Fomin about his idea. An experienced sailor, who headed the “atomic department” under the Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy, was horrified by the scientist’s plan, calling the project “cannibalistic.” According to Sakharov, he was ashamed and never returned to this idea.

Scientists and military personnel received generous awards for the successful testing of the Tsar Bomba, but the very idea of ​​super-powerful thermonuclear charges began to become a thing of the past.

Nuclear weapons designers focused on things less spectacular, but much more effective.

And the explosion of the “Tsar Bomba” to this day remains the most powerful of those ever produced by humanity.

Tsar Bomba in numbers:

Weight: 27 tons
Length: 8 meters
Diameter: 2 meters
Yield: 55 megatons of TNT
Mushroom height: 67 km
Mushroom base diameter: 40 km
Diameter fireball: 4.6 km
Distance at which the explosion caused skin burns: 100 km
Explosion visibility distance: 1000 km
The amount of TNT required to equal the power of the Tsar Bomb: a giant TNT cube with a side of 312 meters (the height of the Eiffel Tower).