Tsar Bent

Tsar Bent (Russian Царь-бомба , literally “Bomb of the Tsar” or “Queen of the Bombs”) is a Hydrogen bomb developed by the Soviet Union. It is the most powerful nuclear weapon of to have exploded history, and it is also the most powerful weapon to be developed by the man.

History

The nickname of Tsar Bent was given by the Americans, in comparison with the Tsar Kolokol, a gigantic bell, and Tsar Pouchka, which remains still the largest gun in the world. The Soviets used the nickname “Ivan” during the phase of development of the bomb.

Description

The Tsar Bent was a bomb with hydrogen (Bombe H) on three floors (fission-fusion-fusion). Of a power of approximately 57 megatons (equivalent: 57000000 of tons of TNT), it was most powerful ever to have exploded. It was carried out to be able to be used as a basis for bombs of 100 MT, according to the wish of Nikita Khrouchtchev, which already declared in its speeches that the the USSR had such a bomb. The third stage, intended to reach 100 MT was however not used for the test. That would have generated an increase of 25% of the world radioactive fallout since the invention of the atomic bomb. The experimental machine thus drew its energy with 97% from thermonuclear fusion. It was conceived in less than 4 months by a team of physicists trained around Igor Kurchatov and in particular including Andreï Sakharov. She had a mass of 27 tons, was 8 m long and 2 m in diameter.

Effects of the explosion

The bomb exploded with 11:33, the October 31st 1961, at an altitude of 4.000 meters above the target and 4.200 meters above the sea level, during a test in the archipelago of the Nova Zembla (Arctic Ocean). It was released of a bomber You-95 controlled by Andreï E. Dournovtsev (1923 - 1976), then decorated with the title of Héros of the Soviet Union, of: 10500 meters of altitude towards 11:30. The bomb was equipped with a parachute to make it possible the bomber to move away to a security distance from the zone from explosion. The detonation developed a fireball 7 km in diameter. The flash of the explosion was visible with more than 1.000 km of the point of impact and the Mushroom cloud while resulting arrived at an altitude of 64 km with a diameter from 30 to 40 km. On the level of the explosion, all was erased, the ground had been levelled and made think of a " patinoire". Wood houses were destroyed to hundreds of kilometers, others lost their roof. Heat was felt to 300 km. The shock wave described 3 times it tower of the ground. The Tsar Bent could inflict third degree burns with more than 100 km of distance whereas the zone of destruction supplements was in a radius of 35 km. On a radius of 180 km, the radioactive fallout were potentially mortals.

The explosion was estimated at 57 megatons by the United States. Later, the Russian scientists published a power of 50 megatons. By comparison, the bomb " Little Boy " , released on Hiroshima had a power from 13 to 16 kilotons (0,013 to 0,016 megaton). In fact, the Soviets would have limited the power envisaged initially to 100 megatons so, according to the word of Khrouchtchev, " not to break all the mirrors of Moscou".

This test took place during work of XXIIe congress of the Communist party of the Soviet Union which was held in Moscow.

Currently, the most powerful existing nuclear bomb is a warhead from 18 to 25 MT assembled on the Soviet ICBM then Russian SS-18 Code NATO Satan .

The American test most powerful in comparison is an accidental shooting of 15 megatons, code name Castle Bravo: An output of 5 megatons was initially envisaged and because a serious radiological accident.

See too

External bonds

  • nuclearweaponarchive.org
  • Atomic Forum
    • video
  • of the explosion

Random links:Lista de palabras latinas con los derivados ingleses | Sonora | Festival of Angouleme 1993 | Plot papist | Antoaneta Stefanova | Silcher | Médaille