Soviet Tsar Bomb. "tsar-bomb": how the ussr showed the world "kuz'kin's mother" Prospects for practical use

On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union detonated itself powerful bomb in the world - Tsar-bombs. This 58-megaton hydrogen bomb was detonated at a test site located on Novaya Zemlya. After the explosion, Nikita Khrushchev liked to joke that it was originally supposed to detonate a 100-megaton bomb, but the charge was reduced "so as not to break all the glass in Moscow."

"Tsar Bomba" AN602

Name

The name "Kuz'kina's mother" appeared under the impression of the famous statement of N. S. Khrushchev "We will show America Kuz'kina's mother!" Officially, the AN602 bomb had no name. In the correspondence for RN202, the designation "product B" was also used, and this was how AN602 was later called (GAU index - "product 602"). At present, all this is sometimes the cause of confusion, since AN602 is mistakenly identified with RDS-37 or (more often) with PH202 (however, the latter identification is partly justified, since AN602 was a modification of PH202). Moreover, as a result, the AN602 retroactively acquired the "hybrid" designation RDS-202 (which neither she nor the PH202 ever wore). The product received the name “Tsar Bomba” as the most powerful and destructive weapon in history.

Development of

There is a widespread myth that the Tsar Bomba was designed on the instructions of Nikita Khrushchev and in record time - allegedly all development and production took 112 days. In fact, work on RN202 / AN602 was carried out for more than seven years - from the fall of 1954 to the fall of 1961 (with a two-year break in 1959-1960). Moreover, in 1954-1958. work on the 100-megaton bomb was carried out by NII-1011.

It is worth noting that the above information on the start date of work is in partial contradiction with the official history of the institute (now it is the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics / RFNC-VNIIEF). According to her, the order on the creation of the corresponding research institute in the system of the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building was signed only on April 5, 1955, and the work at the Research Institute-1011 began a few months later. But in any case - only the final stage of development of AN602 (already in KB-11 - now it is the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics / RFNC-VNIIEF) in the summer-autumn of 1961 (and by no means the entire project as a whole !) really took 112 days. However, the AN602 was not simply a renamed PH202. A number of design changes were made to the design of the bomb, as a result of which, for example, its centering changed noticeably. AN602 had a three-stage design: nuclear charge of the first stage (the calculated contribution to the explosion power - 1.5 megatons) launched a thermonuclear reaction in the second stage (the contribution to the explosion power - 50 megatons), and it, in turn, initiated the nuclear "Jekyll-Hyde reaction" (fission of nuclei in blocks uranium-238 under the action of fast neutrons produced as a result of the thermonuclear fusion reaction) in the third stage (another 50 megatons of power), so that the total design power of the AN602 was 101.5 megatons.

Test site on the map.

The original bomb was rejected due to the extremely high level of radioactive contamination that it was supposed to cause - it was decided not to use the "Jekyll-Hyde reaction" in the third stage of the bomb and replace the uranium components with their lead equivalent. This reduced the estimated total power of the explosion by almost half (to 51.5 megatons).
The first studies on "theme 242" began immediately after the negotiations between IV Kurchatov and AN Tupolev (held in the fall of 1954), who appointed his deputy for weapons systems, AV Nadashkevich, as the head of the theme. The strength analysis carried out showed that the suspension of such a large concentrated load would require serious changes in the power circuit of the original aircraft, in the design of the bomb bay, and in the suspension and release devices. In the first half of 1955, the overall and weight drawing of the AN602, as well as the layout drawing of its placement, were agreed. As expected, the mass of the bomb was 15% of the takeoff weight of the carrier, but its overall dimensions required the removal of the fuselage fuel tanks. The new beam holder BD7-95-242 (BD-242) developed for the AN602 suspension was similar in design to the BD-206, but significantly more lifting capacity. It had three Der5-6 bombing castles with a carrying capacity of 9 tons each. BD-242 was attached directly to the power longitudinal beams that edged the bomb bay. The problem of bomb dropping control was also successfully solved - the electroautomatics ensured the extremely synchronous opening of all three locks (the need for this was dictated by security conditions).

On March 17, 1956, a joint resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 357-228ss was issued, according to which OKB-156 was supposed to start converting the Tu-95 into a carrier of high-yield nuclear bombs. This work was carried out at the LII MAP (Zhukovsky) from May to September 1956. Then the Tu-95V was accepted by the customer and transferred for flight tests, which were carried out (including dropping the "superbomb" model) under the leadership of Colonel S. M. Kulikov until 1959 and passed without any special comments. In October 1959, the Dnepropetrovsk crew delivered the Kuz'kina Mother to the training ground.

Tests

The carrier "superbomb" was created, but its real tests were postponed for political reasons: Khrushchev was going to the United States, and there was a pause in the Cold War. Tu-95V was transferred to the airfield in Uzin, where it was used as a training aircraft and was no longer listed as fighting machine... However, in 1961, with the beginning of a new round of the Cold War, tests of the "superbomb" again became relevant. On the Tu-95V, all the connectors in the automatic release system were urgently replaced and the bomb bay doors were removed - a real bomb in mass (26.5 tons, including the weight of the parachute system - 0.8 tons) and dimensions turned out to be slightly larger than the layout (in particular, now its vertical dimension exceeded the height of the bomb bay). The plane was also covered with special reflective paint. white.

Flash explosion "Tsar Bomba"

Khrushchev announced the upcoming tests of the 50-megaton bomb in his report on October 17, 1961 at the XXII Congress of the CPSU.
The bomb tests took place on October 30, 1961. The prepared Tu-95V with a real bomb on board, piloted by the crew consisting of: ship commander A.E.Durnovtsev, navigator I.N.Kleshch, flight engineer V.Ya.Brui, took off from the Olenya airfield and headed for Novaya Zemlya. The Tu-16A laboratory aircraft also took part in the tests.

Mushroom after explosion

2 hours after takeoff, the bomb was dropped from an altitude of 10,500 meters by parachute system at a conventional target within the Sukhoi Nos nuclear test site (73.85, 54.573 ° 51 ′ N 54 ° 30 ′ E / 73.85 ° N 54.5 ° E (G) (O)). The bomb was detonated barometrically 188 seconds after being dropped at an altitude of 4200 m above sea level (4000 m above the target) (however, there are other data on the height of the explosion - in particular, the numbers 3700 m above the target (3900 m above sea level) and 4500 m). The carrier aircraft managed to fly at a distance of 39 kilometers, and the laboratory aircraft - 53.5 kilometers. The explosion power significantly exceeded the calculated one (51.5 megatons) and ranged from 57 to 58.6 megatons in TNT equivalent. There is also information that according to the initial data, the power of the explosion of AN602 was significantly overestimated and was estimated at up to 75 megatons.

There is video footage of the landing of the bomb carrier after the test; the plane was on fire, when viewed after landing, it was clear that some protruding aluminum parts were melted and deformed.

Test results

The AN602 explosion was classified as an ultra-high power low air explosion. The results were impressive:

The fireball of the explosion reached a radius of approximately 4.6 kilometers. In theory, it could grow to the surface of the earth, but this was prevented by the reflected shock wave, which crushed and threw the ball off the ground.

The radiation could potentially cause third-degree burns up to 100 kilometers away.

Ionization of the atmosphere caused radio interference even hundreds of kilometers from the landfill for about 40 minutes

A perceptible seismic wave from the explosion circled the globe three times.

Witnesses felt the impact and were able to describe the explosion thousands of kilometers from its center.

The explosion mushroom cloud rose to a height of 67 kilometers; the diameter of its two-tiered "hat" reached (at the upper tier) 95 kilometers

The sound wave generated by the explosion reached Dixon Island at a distance of about 800 kilometers. However, sources do not report any destruction or damage to structures even in the urban-type settlement of Amderma and the village of Belushya Guba located much closer (280 km) to the landfill.

Consequences of the test

The main goal that was set and was achieved by this test was to demonstrate the Soviet Union's possession of weapons of mass destruction unlimited in power - the TNT equivalent of the most powerful thermo nuclear bomb of those tested by that time in the United States was almost four times less than that of AN602.

diameter of total destruction, for clarity, plotted on a map of Paris

An extremely important scientific result was the experimental verification of the principles of calculation and design of multistage thermonuclear charges. It has been experimentally proved that the maximum power of a thermonuclear charge, in principle, is not limited by anything. So, in the tested sample of the bomb, to raise the explosion power by another 50 megatons, it was enough to complete the third stage of the bomb (it was the shell of the second stage) not from lead, but from uranium-238, as was normally expected. The replacement of the shell material and the lowering of the explosion power were motivated only by the desire to reduce the amount of radioactive fallout to an acceptable level, and not by the desire to reduce the weight of the bomb, as is sometimes believed. However, the weight of AN602 from this really decreased, but not significantly - the uranium shell should have weigh about 2800 kg, the lead shell of the same volume - based on the lower density of lead - about 1700 kg. The resulting relief of just over one ton is weakly noticeable with a total mass of AN602 of at least 24 tons (even if we take the most modest estimate) and did not affect the state of affairs with its transportation.

It cannot be argued that "the explosion became one of the cleanest in the history of atmospheric nuclear tests" - the first stage of the bomb was a uranium charge with a capacity of 1.5 megatons, which in itself provided a large amount of radioactive fallout. Nevertheless, it can be considered that for a nuclear explosive device of such power, the AN602 was really quite clean - more than 97% of the explosion power was given by a thermonuclear fusion reaction that did not create radioactive contamination.
Also, the discussion about the ways of the political application of the technology for creating super-powerful nuclear warheads served as the beginning of the ideological differences between Khrushchev N. S. and Sakharov A. D., since Nikita Sergeevich did not accept Andrei Dmitrievich's project to deploy several dozen super-powerful nuclear warheads, with a capacity of 200 or even 500 megatons, along US maritime borders, allowing neoconservatives to sober up without getting involved in a devastating arms race

Rumors and hoaxes related to AN602

The test results of the AN602 have become the subject of a number of other rumors and hoaxes. So, it was sometimes argued that the power of a bomb explosion reached 120 megatons. This was probably due to the "imposition" of information about the excess of the actual explosion power over the calculated one by about 20% (in fact, by 14-17%) on the initial design bomb power (100 megatons, more precisely - 101.5 megatons). The newspaper Pravda also added fuel to the fire of such rumors, on the pages of which it was officially announced that “She<АН602> - the yesterday of atomic weapons. Even more powerful charges have been created now. In fact, more powerful thermonuclear ammunition - for example, warhead for the UR-500 ICBM (GRAU index 8K82; the well-known Proton launch vehicle is its modification) with a capacity of 150 megatons, although they were really developed, they have remained on the drawing boards.

IN different time Rumors also circulated that the power of the bomb had been reduced by 2 times compared to the planned, as scientists feared the occurrence of a self-sustaining thermonuclear reaction in the atmosphere. Interestingly, similar concerns (only about the possibility of a self-sustaining nuclear fission reaction occurring in the atmosphere) have already been expressed earlier - in preparation for testing the first atomic bomb within the framework of the Manhattan Project. Then these fears reached the point that one of the worried scientists was not only removed from the tests, but also sent to the care of doctors.
Scientists and physicists also expressed fears (generated mainly by the science fiction of those years - this topic often figured in the books of Alexander Kazantsev, as in his book "Faetias" it was argued that in this way the hypothetical planet Phaethon, from which the asteroid belt remained), that an explosion could initiate a thermonuclear reaction in sea \u200b\u200bwatercontaining some deuterium, and thus cause the oceans to explode, which will shatter the planet.

Similar concerns, albeit in a joking manner, were expressed by the hero of science fiction books Yuri Tupitsyn, starship Klim Zhdan:
“When I return to Earth, I am always worried. Is she there? Didn't the scientists, carried away by the next promising experiment, turn it into a cloud of cosmic dust or a plasma nebula? "

Explosion site

The use of AN602 clearly demonstrated the Soviet Union's possession of weapons of mass destruction with unlimited power. The scientific result was the experimental verification of the principles of calculation and design of multistage thermonuclear charges.

AN602 was a modification of the RN202 project.

The Tsar Bomba is the most powerful manufactured explosive device in the history of mankind. The bomb is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most powerful thermonuclear device ever tested.

Project goals

In the mid-1950s, the United States had an unconditional superiority over the USSR in nuclear weapons... Although thermonuclear charges had already been created in the USSR by this time, there was no necessary variety. Also, there were no effective means of delivering nuclear warheads to the United States, both in the 1950s and in 1961. The USSR had no real possibility of a retaliatory nuclear strike against the USA.

In addition to foreign policy and propaganda considerations - to respond to US nuclear blackmail - the creation of "Tsar Bomba" fit into the concept of nuclear deterrence, adopted during the leadership of the country by G.M. Malenkov and N. S. Khrushchev, which boiled down to a nuclear bluff to create the appearance nuclear equilibrium.

Also on June 23, 1960, a Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued on the creation of a super-heavy ballistic missile N-1 (GRAU index - 11A52) with a warhead weighing 75 tons (for a comparative assessment - the weight of the warhead of the UR-500 intercontinental ICBM tested in 1964 was 14 tons).

The development of new designs of nuclear and thermonuclear ammunition requires testing, in which the operability of the device is confirmed, its safety in emergency situations and the calculated energy release during the explosion is confirmed.

Before the bomb, in the early 1950s, a similar torpedo was being developed. There were no aviation and missile systems with the necessary tactical and technical characteristics in the USSR at that time, and the country's leadership decided to create a thermonuclear torpedo and a submarine to deliver it to the enemy's coast: on September 12, 1952, J.V. Stalin signed a decree of the USSR Council of Ministers "On the design and construction of facility 627" (nuclear powered submarine). It was assumed that it would carry the T-15 torpedo with a thermonuclear charge with a capacity of up to 100 megatons of TNT equivalent. Due to unsuccessful tests, the T-15 was not completed, the submarine received conventional torpedoes. ( )

Name

Official names: "product 602", "AN602", "Ivan".

At present, the difference in names becomes the cause of confusion, when AH602 is mistakenly identified with RDS-37 or with PH202 (product 202). (AН602 was a modification of РН202. In correspondence for РН202, the designation "RDS-202", "202" and "product B" was originally used [ ] .)

Unofficial names are "Tsar Bomba" and "Kuzkina Mother". The name "Tsar Bomba" emphasizes that it is the most powerful weapon in history. The name “Kuzkina's Mother” was inspired by the statement of NS Khrushchev to US Vice President Richard Nixon: “We have at our disposal funds that will have dire consequences for you. We will show Kuzkin's mother!» .

Development of

The development of a super-powerful bomb began in 1956 and was carried out in two stages. At the first stage, from 1956 to 1958. it was "product 202", which was developed in the recently created NII-1011. The modern name of NII-1011 is "Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute for Theoretical Physics (RFNC-VNIITF)". According to the official history of the institute, the order on the creation of a research institute in the system of the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building was signed on April 5, 1955; work at the research institute-1011 began somewhat later. [ ]

At the second stage of development, from 1960 to a successful test in 1961, the bomb was called "item 602" and was developed at KB-11 (now - VNIIEF), VB Adamskiy was in charge, and A.D. Sakharov, Yu. N. Babaev, Yu. N. Smirnov, Yu. A. Trutnev.

Item 202

After the creation in 1955 of the second nuclear center - NII-1011, in 1956, by a resolution of the Council of Ministers, it was assigned the task of developing an ultra-high-power charge, which was named "Project 202".

On March 12, 1956, the draft Joint Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the preparation and testing of the 202 product was adopted. The project planned to develop a version of the RDS-37 with a capacity of 30 Mt TE

On June 6, 1956, the NII-1011 report described the RDS-202 thermonuclear device with a design power of up to 38 Mt with the required task of 20-30 Mt. In reality, this device was developed with an estimated capacity of 15 Mt, after testing the products "40GN", "245" and "205" its tests were deemed inexpedient and canceled.

Item 602

AN602 was not a renamed RN202, it was just decided to use the developments of Project 202 to speed up the tests. In KB-11 (VNIIEF), six cases already made at NII-1011 (VNIITF) were taken for the Project 202 bomb and a set of equipment developed for its testing was used.

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

A test of the full, 100 Mt variant of the bomb was rejected due to the extremely high level of radioactive contamination it was to cause. A.D.Sakharov suggested using nuclear passive material instead of U 238 in the secondary bomb module, which reduced the power to 50 Mt and, in addition to reducing the number of fission fragments, avoided touching fireball earth surface, which excluded radioactive contamination of the surface and the raising of a large amount of radioactive dust into the atmosphere.

Development of the carrier aircraft

To deliver the bomb, a team led by Alexander Nadashkevich in 1955 developed a modified version of the Tu-95 bomber - Tu-95V, another name - Tu-95-202. This aircraft was made in a single copy.

The first studies on this topic began immediately after IV Kurchatov's negotiations in the fall of 1954 with A. N. Tupolev, who appointed his deputy for weapons systems A. V. Nadashkevich as the head of the topic. Analysis showed that the suspension of such a large bomb would require major modifications to the aircraft. In the first half of 1955, the dimensions, weight and placement of the AN202 in the aircraft were agreed. As expected, the mass of the bomb was 15% of the carrier's take-off mass, but due to its size, the aircraft was left without external fuel tanks. A new beam holder based on the BD-206 was developed for the AN202 suspension. The developed new BD7-95-242 (BD-242) was significantly higher than the BD-206, it had three Der5-6 bombing locks with a carrying capacity of 9 tons each. Three locks created the problem of safely dropping the bomb and it was solved - the electroautomatic system ensured the synchronous opening of all three locks.

On March 17, 1956, a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 357-228ss was issued, according to which OKB-156 was to start converting the Tu-95 into a carrier of high-yield nuclear bombs. This work was carried out at the MAP (Zhukovsky) from May to September 1956. Then the Tu-95V was accepted by the customer and transferred for flight tests, which were carried out (including dropping the "superbomb" mockup) under the leadership of Colonel S. M. Kulikov until 1959 and passed without any special comments.

The "superbomb" carrier was created, but its real tests were postponed for political reasons: Khrushchev was going to the United States, and there was a pause in the "cold war". Tu-95V was transferred to the airfield in Uzin, where it was used as a training aircraft and was no longer listed as a combat vehicle. In 1961, with the adoption of the decision on the test, on the Tu-95V they urgently replaced all the connectors in the automatic release system and removed the bomb bay doors - a real bomb by mass (26.5 tons, including the weight of the parachute system - 0.8 tons) and the dimensions turned out to be slightly larger than the layout (in particular, now its vertical dimensions exceeded the dimensions of the bomb bay in height). The aircraft was also covered with a special reflective paint in white.

In the fall of 1961, the aircraft was modified for testing AN602 at the Kuibyshev aircraft plant.

Tests

Khrushchev personally announced the upcoming tests of a 50-megaton bomb in his report on October 17, 1961 at the XXII Congress of the CPSU. Before the official announcement, in an informal conversation, he told about the bomb to one of the American politicians, and this information was published by The New York Times on September 8, 1961.

The bomb tests took place on October 30, 1961. The prepared Tu-95V No. 5800302 with a bomb on board took off from the Olenya airfield and headed for Novaya Zemlya. The crew of the carrier aircraft consisted of 9 people:

major Test Pilot Andrey Egorovich Durnovtsev;
lead navigator of tests, Major Kleshch Ivan Nikiforovich;
second pilot, Captain Mikhail Konstantinovich Kondratenko;
navigator-operator of the radar st. Lieutenant Bobikov Anatoly Sergeevich;
radar operator Captain Prokopenko Alexander Filippovich;
flight engineer captain of t / s Yevtushenko Grigory Mikhailovich;
art. radio operator art. Lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Mashkin;
KOU, gunner-radio operator Captain Snetkov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich;
gunner-radio operator lance corporal Bolotov Vasily Yakovlevich.

The tests were also attended by the Tu-16A laboratory aircraft (serial, equipped for monitoring the tests), tail number 3709 with the crew:

leading test pilot Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Fyodorovich Martynenko;
second pilot Art. Lieutenant Mukhanov Vladimir Ivanovich;
leading navigator Major Semyon Artemyevich Grigoryuk;
navigator-operator of the radar, Major Muzlanov Vasily Timofeevich;
radio operator art. Sergeant s / s Shumilov Mikhail Emelyanovich.

At 2 hours 3 minutes after takeoff at an altitude of 11.5 km above the target level, the bomb was dropped from the carrier aircraft, after which it was lowered on the main parachute with an area of \u200b\u200b1600 m2, the total mass of the parachute system, which included five more pilot parachutes, which were triggered by three cascades ", Was 800 kg.

The bomb was detonated by a barometric detonator 189 seconds after being dropped at 11:33 Moscow time (08:33 UTC) at an altitude of 4200 m above sea level (4000 m above the target).

Other sources indicate different explosion heights, from 3700 m above the target (3900 m above sea level) to 4500 m.

By the time of the explosion, the carrier aircraft was at a distance of about 39 km, and the laboratory aircraft - 53.5 km. The shock wave caught up with the carrier aircraft at a distance of 115 km, the effect of the shock wave from the explosion was felt in the form of vibration and did not affect the aircraft's flight mode. After landing on the fuselage, several spots from the explosion flash were seen.

By the time the shock wave arrived, the laboratory plane was at a distance of 205 km from the explosion site. The measured explosion power (58.6 megatons) significantly exceeded the design one (51.5 megatons). There is information that according to the initial data, the power of the explosion of AN602 was significantly overestimated and was estimated at values \u200b\u200bof up to 75 megatons.

Test results

The scientific result of the test was the experimental verification of the principles of calculation and design of multistage thermonuclear charges. It was experimentally proved that there is no fundamental limitation on increasing the power of a thermonuclear charge (however, as early as October 30, 1949, three years before the Mike test, in the Supplement to the official report of the General Advisory Committee of the US Atomic Energy Commission, nuclear physicists Enrico Fermi and Isidore The Rabis noted that thermonuclear weapons have "unlimited destructive power" and that the cost of increasing the yield of the ammunition in FY 1950 prices was 60 cents per kiloton of TNT equivalent). In the tested sample of the bomb, to raise the explosion power by another 50 megatons, it was enough to replace the lead shell with uranium-238, as it was supposed to be normally. The replacement of the cladding material and the decrease in the explosion power were caused by the desire to reduce the amount of radioactive fallout to an acceptable level, and not by the desire to reduce the weight of the bomb, as is sometimes believed (the weight of the AN602 really decreased from this, but insignificantly - the uranium cladding should have weighed about 2800 kg, while the lead a shell of the same volume - based on the lower density of lead - about 1700 kg.The resulting relief of just over one ton is hardly noticeable with a total mass of AN602 of at least 24 tons (even if we take the most modest estimate) and did not affect the state of affairs with its transportation . [ ]

The explosion has become one of the cleanest in the history of atmospheric nuclear tests per unit of power. The first stage of the bomb was a uranium charge with a capacity of 1.5 megatons, which in itself provided a large amount of radioactive fallout, however, it can be considered that AN602 was really relatively clean - more than 97% of the explosion power was given by a thermonuclear reaction that did not create radioactive contamination. synthesis.

A distant consequence was the increased radioactivity accumulated in the glaciers of Novaya Zemlya. According to the 2015 expedition, due to nuclear tests, the glaciers of Novaya Zemlya are 65-130 times more radioactive than the background in neighboring areas, including due to the tests of the Kuzkina Mother.

Prospects for practical use

The AN602 was never a weapon, it was a single product, the design of which allowed reaching a power of 100 Mt TE, the test of a 50-megaton bomb was, among other things, a test of the performance of the product design for 100 megatons. This bomb was intended solely for psychological pressure on the Americans.

Specialists began the development of combat missiles for warheads of high power (150 Mt and more), which were reoriented to the withdrawal of spacecraft: UR-500 (warhead mass 40 tons, practically implemented as a Proton launch vehicle, GRAU index - 8K82), N-1 (warhead mass - 75–95 tons, the development was reoriented to a carrier for the lunar program, the project was brought to the stage of flight design tests and closed in 1976, GRAU index - 11A52), R-56 (GRAU index - 8K67).

Rumors and hoaxes related to AN602

The test results of the AN602 have become the subject of rumors and hoaxes.

Some publications claimed that the bomb's detonation power reached 120 megatons. This was probably due to the "imposition" of information about the excess of the actual explosion power over the calculated one by about 20% (in fact, by 14-17%) on the initial design bomb power (100 megatons, more precisely - 101.5 megatons). The newspaper Pravda also added fuel to the fire of such rumors, on the pages of which it was officially stated that “she<АН602> - the yesterday of atomic weapons. Even more powerful charges have been created now. In fact, the designers considered the possibility of creating more powerful thermonuclear ammunition (for example, the warhead of the UR-500 missile with a capacity of 150 megatons), but no further sketch designs were developed. [ ]

At different times, there were rumors that the power of the bomb was reduced by 2 times compared to the planned one, as scientists feared the occurrence of a self-sustaining thermonuclear reaction involving the involvement of the atmosphere and the ocean in the hydrogen reaction and the subsequent burnout of oxygen.
(Before the test in the United States of the first atomic bomb, similar concerns were expressed about the occurrence of an uncontrolled nuclear reaction in the atmosphere, despite the contradiction of such a possibility to all known information about nuclear reactions. Immediately before the explosion, the young scientist, who was nervous about such fears, was removed from the test site on the advice of doctors ). In reality, the detonation of either the atmosphere or the ocean is impossible for any power of a thermonuclear explosion.

A rumor has spread about the extremely rapid development of the Tsar Bomba, allegedly it was fully constructed in 112 days after Khrushchev's instructions at a meeting on July 10, 1961. In fact, development began in 1956.

This bomb was never some kind of labor gift from developers. nuclear weapons to the opening of the next party congress, as some authors wrote.

Comments

Notes

Veselov, A. V. Tsar Bomba // Atompressa: Gas .. - 2006. - No. 43 (726) (October). - S. 7.
Guinness Book of Records: 1993. - Moscow − London, 1993. - P. 198.
Zubok, Vladislav Martinovich. Khrushchev's "Nuclear Doctrine" // Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev / Per. M. Makbal. - Russian political encyclopedia, 2011 .-- 672 p. - (History of Stalinism). - 1500 copies.
Pervov, Mikhail. Missile systems Strategic Missile Forces // Equipment and weapons. - 2001. - No. 5-6. - S. 44−45.
Pervov, M. Rocket Forces missile weapon strategic purpose... - M.: Violanta, 1999 .-- 288 p. - ISBN 5-88803-012-0.
Slipchenko, Viktor Sergeevich. Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty: Materials of a lecture by V.S.Slipchenko delivered on April 14, 2004 at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology for students of the course “Non-proliferation and arms reduction regime mass destruction and national security»: [ arch. June 11, 2004] / Center for Disarmament, Energy and Environmental Studies at MIPT. - MIPT, 2004.
Chuprin, Konstantin. Bombs with affectionate names: Domestic aviation has a wide range of thermonuclear weapons: [ arch. November 11, 2005] // Independent Military Review: Gas .. - 2005. - No. 43 (452) (June 10). - [online version of the article].
, No. 208. NII-1011 report on design substantiation and calculations of the RDS-202 product, p. 480-482.
, No. 211. Note by A.P. Zavenyagin and I.S.Konev to the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU with the presentation of the draft resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the test program in July-August 1956, p. 484.
Rosatom will show "Kuzkina's mother" at an exhibition in Moscow (Russian). RIA News" (August 15, 2015). Date of treatment February 1, 2019. Archived February 2, 2019.
, No. 192. Note by A. D. Sakharov, Ya. B. Zel'dovich and V. A. Davidenko to N. I. Pavlov with an estimate of the parameters of products with a capacity of 150 megatons and one billion tons of TNT, p. 440-441.
Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. 1954-1964. Draft minutes of meetings. Transcripts. Resolutions. / Ch. ed. A. A. Fursenko. - M.: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2006. - T. 2.: Resolutions. 1954-1958. - 1120 p .:

Adopt the draft resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the preparation and testing of the product 202.
Include in the draft resolution clauses obliging:
a) the Ministry of Medium Machine Building (t. Zavenyagina) and the Ministry of Defense of the USSR (t. Zhukova) after graduation preparatory work report to the Central Committee of the CPSU on the state of affairs before testing product 202;
b) The Ministry of Medium Machine Building (Comrade Zavenyagina) to work out the issue of introducing a special protection stage into the design of the product 202, which ensures the failure of the product if the parachute system fails, and report its proposals to the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Instruct com. Vannikov and Kurchatov the final version of the text of this resolution.
, No. 215. Note by A. P. Zavenyagin, B. L. Vannikov and P. M. Zernov to the Central Committee of the CPSU with the presentation of the draft resolution of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU on the postponement of the test of the product "202", p. 492-493.
Anton Volkov. Test charge 50 Mt - "Kuzkina Mother" (Russian) (unavailable link). Nuclear and thermonuclear weapons... 2002 by Anton Volkov. Retrieved September 28, 2012. Archived October 22, 2009. [ ]
Sakharov, Andrei. Memoirs: [eng. ]... - New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. - P. 215-225. - ISBN 0-679-73595-X.
Tupolev Tu-95V (Russian). "Corner of the sky": Big aviation encyclopedia [ ]
, from. 420.
XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on October 17-31, 1961: Verbatim report. - M.: Politizdat, 1962 .-- T. 1. - S. 55.
Khokhlov Igor Igorevich. Tsar Bomb (Big Ivan). a thermonuclear device developed in the mid-1950s by a group of physicists led by Academician I. V. Kurchatov. The group included Andrey Sakharov, Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babaev, Yuri Trunov and Yuri Smirnov (Russian) ... Date of treatment April 1, 2019. [ ]

On October 30, 1961, the most powerful explosive device in the history of mankind was detonated on Novaya Zemlya.

More powerful, more powerful ...

At the beginning of the "atomic age", the United States and the Soviet Union entered a race not only in terms of quantity atomic bombs, but also by their power.

The USSR, which acquired atomic weapons later than a competitor, he sought to level the playing field 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 team involved in this project included Andrey Sakharov, Victor Adamskiy, Yuri Babaev, Yuri Trunov and Yuri Smirnov.

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

Design surveys lasted for several years, and the final stage of the development of "item 602" fell in 1961 and took 112 days.

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

"Product 602"

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 the aircraft. The first version of the 40-ton bomb was rejected by aircraft designers from the Tupolev Design Bureau - the carrier aircraft would not have been able to deliver such a load to the target.

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

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

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

In early 1961, however, the situation escalated again, and the project was revived.

Time for "mother Kuzma"

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

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

The test site was the "Dry Nose" test site on Novaya Zemlya. Preparations for the explosion were completed in the last days of October 1961.

The Tu-95V carrier aircraft was based at the Vaenga airfield. Here, in a special room, the final preparation for the tests was carried out.

On the morning of October 30, 1961, the crew pilot Andrey Durnovtsev received an order to fly to the area of \u200b\u200bthe landfill and drop the bomb.

Taking off from the airfield in Vaenga, the Tu-95V reached the design point two hours later. The bomb on the parachute system was dropped from a height of 10,500 meters, after which the pilots immediately began to take the car out of the dangerous area.

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

There was Paris - and there is no Paris

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

The witnesses of the test say that they have never seen anything like this in their lives. The explosion mushroom has risen 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 a kind of military parade ground. Complete destruction was achieved in an area equal to that of Paris.

The ionization of the atmosphere caused interference to radio communications even hundreds of kilometers from the landfill for about 40 minutes. The lack of radio communication convinced the scientists that the tests were perfect. The shock wave resulting from the explosion of the Tsar Bomba circled the globe three times. The sound wave generated by the explosion reached Dixon Island at a distance of about 800 kilometers.

Despite the heavy cloudiness, 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 explosion power was provided by a thermonuclear fusion reaction that practically did not create radioactive contamination.

This allowed scientists to begin researching the test results in the experimental field two hours after the explosion.

Sakharov's "cannibalistic" project

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

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

Ironically, the main skeptics were the military. From their point of view, such a weapon had no practical meaning. How do you order him to be delivered to the "enemy's lair"? The USSR already had missiles, but they could not fly to America with such a load.

Strategic bombers were also unable to reach the United States with such "baggage". In addition, they became an easy target for air defense systems.

Atomic scientists turned out to be much more enthusiastic. There were plans to deploy several 200-500 megaton superbombs off the coast of the United States, the explosion of which was supposed to cause a giant tsunami that would sweep America into literally the words.

Academician Andrei Sakharov, future human rights activist and laureate Nobel Prize peace, put forward a different plan. “The carrier can be a large torpedo launched from a submarine. I fantasized that it was possible to develop a ramjet water-steam atomic jet engine for such a torpedo. The target of an attack from a distance of several hundred kilometers should be enemy ports. The 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 human casualties, "the scientist wrote in his memoirs.

Sakharov told about his idea Vice Admiral Pyotr Fomin... 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 the military have received generous awards for the successful testing of the Tsar Bomba, but the very idea of \u200b\u200bsuper-powerful thermonuclear charges has become a thing of the past.

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

And the explosion of the "Tsar Bomb" to this day remains the most powerful of those that have ever been produced by mankind.

55 years ago, on October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union tested at the Novaya Zemlya test site (Arkhangelsk region) the world's most powerful thermonuclear device - an experimental aviation hydrogen bomb with a capacity of about 58 megatons in TNT ("product 602"; unofficial names: "Tsar -bomb "," Kuzkina's 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 a chain reaction of fission, either uranium-235 or plutonium-239 (less often, uranium-233) are used. Thermonuclear weapons (hydrogen bombs) involve the use of the energy of an uncontrolled nuclear fusion reaction, that is, the conversion of light elements into heavier ones (for example, two atoms of "heavy hydrogen", deuterium, into one atom of helium). A thermonuclear weapon has a higher potential for explosive power than conventional nuclear bombs.

Development of thermonuclear weapons in the USSR

In the USSR, the development of thermonuclear weapons began in the late 1940s. Andrey Sakharov, Yuliy Khariton, Igor Tamm and other scientists at Design Bureau No. 11 (KB-11, known as Arzamas-16; now - the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, RFNC-VNIIEF; Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Region) ... In 1949, the first project of thermonuclear weapons was developed. The first Soviet hydrogen bomb RDS-6s with a capacity 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 Ivy Mike thermonuclear explosive device on November 1, 1952, the RDS-6s was a full-fledged bomb, suitable for delivery by a bomber. The Ivy Mike weighed 73.8 tons and was more like a small plant in size, but its explosion power was at that time a record 10.4 megatons.

"Tsar torpedo"

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

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

Subsequently, in his book "Memories", the scientist wrote that Rear Admiral Pyotr Fomin, who was in charge of the 627 project from the side of the fleet, was shocked by the "cannibalistic nature" of the T-15. According to Sakharov, Fomin told him "that the sailors are used to fighting an armed enemy in open battle" and that the very idea of \u200b\u200bsuch a mass murder is disgusting for him. Subsequently, this conversation influenced Sakharov's decision to engage in human rights activities. The T-15 was never accepted 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 aviation super-powerful thermonuclear charge was made by the government of the USSR in November 1955. Initially, the research institute No. 1011 (NII-1011; known as Chelyabinsk-70; now - the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics named after V.I. 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 "product 202" (design capacity is about 30 megatons). However, in 1958 the country's top leadership closed work in this direction.

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 USSR Council of Ministers Nikita Khrushchev announced the decision of the country's leadership to start developing and testing a hydrogen bomb of 100 megatons. The work was entrusted to the employees of KB-11. Under the leadership of Andrei Sakharov, a group of theoretical physicists developed "product 602" (AN-602). For it, a body was used, already manufactured at NII-1011.

Characteristics of the "Tsar Bomba"

The bomb was a streamlined ballistic body with a tail.

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

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

The Tu-95 heavy strategic bomber, indexed "B", was converted to transport the bomb. Due to the impossibility of placing it in the bomb compartment of the car, a special device on the suspension was developed, which ensured the rise of the bomb to the fuselage and fastening it to three synchronously controlled locks.

The safety of the carrier aircraft crew was ensured by a specially developed system of several parachutes near the bomb: exhaust, brake and main area of \u200b\u200b1.6 thousand square meters. m. They were thrown from the rear of the hull one by one, slowing down the fall of the bomb (up to a speed of about 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 their 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 tests of new nuclear weapons are going on very successfully in our country. We will be completing these tests soon. Obviously at the end of October. In conclusion, we will probably detonate a hydrogen bomb with a capacity of 50 million tons of TNT. We said that we have a bomb of 100 million tons of TNT. And this is 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.

Test

Testing of the experimental "item 602" took place on October 30, 1961 at the Novaya Zemlya test site. Tu-95V with a crew of nine (lead pilot - Andrey Durnovtsev, lead navigator - Ivan Kleshch) took off from the Olenya military airfield on the Kola Peninsula. The bomb was dropped from a height of 10.5 km onto the site of the Northern Island of the archipelago, in the Matochkin Shar Strait. The explosion took place at an altitude of 3.7 km from the ground and 4.2 km above sea level, at 188 seconds. after separating the bomb from the bomber.

The flash lasted 65-70 seconds. The "nuclear mushroom" rose to a height of 67 km, the diameter of the red-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 overcast, a light flash was observed at a distance of more than 1,000 km. The shock wave circled the earth three times due to electromagnetic radiation for 40-50 minutes. radio communication was interrupted for many hundreds of kilometers from the test site. The radioactive contamination in the epicenter area turned out to be small (1 milliroentgen per hour), so the research staff was able to work there safely 2 hours after the explosion.

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

The shooting of the test was carried out both from the ground and from the Tu-95V, which at the time of the explosion managed to move at a distance of more than 45 km, as well as from the Il-14 aircraft (at the time of the explosion it was at a distance of 55 km). At the latter, Marshal of the Soviet Union Kirill Moskalenko and Minister of Medium Machine Building of the USSR Efim Slavsky watched the tests.

World reaction to the Soviet superbomb

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

After lengthy negotiations, on August 5, 1963 in Moscow, representatives of the United States, USSR and Great Britain signed the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in Outer Space, Underwater and on the Earth's Surface. Since its entry into force, the USSR has carried out only underground nuclear tests. The last explosion took place on October 24, 1990 on Novaya Zemlya, after which the Soviet Union announced a unilateral moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. At present, Russia also adheres to this moratorium.

Creator Awards

In 1962, for the successful test of the most powerful thermonuclear bomb, the crew members of the carrier aircraft Andrei Durnovtsev and Ivan Klesh 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 Tsar Bomba (without control systems and warheads) are kept in the museums of RFNC-VNIIEF in Sarov (the first national museum of nuclear weapons; opened in 1992) and 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 nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, which was tested in the Soviet Union in 1961. This bomb was the most powerful bomb ever detonated. Its power was such that the explosion from the explosion was visible for 1000 km, and the mushroom cloud rose almost 70 km.

The Tsar Bomb was a hydrogen bomb. It was created in the laboratory of Kurchatov. The power of the bomb was such that it would be enough for 3800 Hiroshima.

Let's remember the history of its creation ...

At the beginning of the “atomic age,” the United States and the Soviet Union entered the race not only in the number of atomic bombs, but also in their yield.

The USSR, which acquired atomic weapons later than a competitor, sought to equalize 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 Andrey Sakharov, Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babaev, Yuri Trunov and Yuri Smirnov.

In the course of research, 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 underway to initiate thermonuclear fusion by compressing nuclear fuel using conventional explosive charges - but they were unsuccessful, since they failed to obtain the required temperatures and pressures. The USA and the USSR have been developing thermonuclear weapons since the 40s, practically simultaneously testing the first thermonuclear devices in the early 50s. In 1952, on Enewetak Atoll, the United States exploded a charge with a capacity of 10.4 megatons (which is 450 times more than the power of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki), and in 1953, a device with a capacity of 400 kilotons was tested in the USSR.

The designs of the first thermonuclear devices were ill-suited for real combat use. For example, the device tested by the United States in 1952 was a ground structure as high as a two-story building and weighing over 80 tons. Liquid thermonuclear fuel was stored in it using a huge refrigeration unit. Therefore, in the future, the serial production of thermonuclear weapons was 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, a hydrogen bomb was tested in Great Britain.

Design surveys lasted for several years, and the final stage of the development of "item 602" fell in 1961 and took 112 days.

However, the original version was rejected, because in this form, a bomb explosion would cause extremely powerful radiation pollution (which, however, according to calculations, would still be seriously inferior to that which was 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).

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

In early 1961, however, the situation escalated again, and the project was revived.

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

The test site was the "Dry Nose" test site on Novaya Zemlya. Preparations for the explosion were completed in the last days of October 1961.

The Tu-95V carrier aircraft was based at the Vaenga airfield. Here, in a special room, the final preparation for the tests was carried out.

On the morning of October 30, 1961, the crew of pilot Andrei Durnovtsev was ordered to fly to the area of \u200b\u200bthe training ground and drop the bomb.

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

The explosion power 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 reaction of thermonuclear fusion of light nuclei. It is this reaction that takes place in the interiors of stars, where, under the action of ultra-high temperatures and gigantic 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 amount of energy - thanks to this, the stars release a huge amount of energy constantly. Scientists copied this reaction using hydrogen isotopes - deuterium and tritium, which gave the name "hydrogen bomb". Initially, liquid hydrogen isotopes were used to produce charges, and later lithium-6 deuteride, a solid, a compound of deuterium and a lithium isotope, began to be used.

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

The shell of a container for a thermonuclear fuel is made of uranium-238 and plastic; a conventional nuclear charge with a capacity of several kilotons is placed next to the container - it is called a trigger, or a charge-initiator of a hydrogen bomb. During the explosion of a plutonium charge-initiator under the action of powerful X-ray radiation, the container shell turns into plasma, contracting thousands of times, which creates the required high pressure and tremendous temperature. Simultaneously, neutrons emitted by plutonium interact with lithium-6 to form tritium. Deuterium and tritium nuclei interact under the influence of ultrahigh temperature and pressure, which leads to a thermonuclear explosion.

If you make several layers of uranium-238 and lithium-6 deuteride, each of them will add its own power to the explosion of the 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.

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

This allowed scientists to begin researching the test results in the experimental field two hours after the explosion.

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

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

Strategic bombers were also unable to reach the United States with such "baggage". In addition, they became an easy target for air defense systems.

Academician Andrei Sakharov, future human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, put forward a different plan. “The carrier can be a large torpedo launched from a submarine. I fantasized that it was possible to develop a ramjet water-steam atomic jet engine for such a torpedo. The target of an attack from a distance of several hundred kilometers should be enemy ports. The 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 human 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.

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

And the explosion of the "Tsar Bomb" to this day remains the most powerful of those that have ever been produced by mankind.

Tsar bomb in numbers:

The weight: 27 tons
Length: 8 meters
Diameter: 2 meters
Power: 55 megatons in TNT equivalent
Nuclear mushroom height: 67 km
Mushroom base diameter: 40 km
Fireball diameter: 4.6 km
Distance at which the explosion caused skin burns: 100 km
Explosion Visibility Distance: 1 000 km
The amount of TNT required to equal the power of the Tsar Bomb: a giant TNT cube with a side 312 meters (height of the Eiffel Tower)

sources

http://www.aif.ru/society/history/1371856

http://www.aif.ru/dontknows/infographics/kak_deystvuet_vodorodnaya_bomba_i_kakovy_posledstviya_vzryva_infografika

http://lllolll.ru/tsar-bomb

And a little more about the non-peaceful ATOM: here, for example, and here. And there was also such that there were also The original article is on the site InfoGlaz.rf The link to the article this copy was made from is

Soviet Tsar Bomb. "tsar-bomb": how the ussr showed the world "kuz'kin's mother" Prospects for practical use

Project goals

Name

Development of

Item 202

Item 602

Development of the carrier aircraft

Tests

Test results

Prospects for practical use

Rumors and hoaxes related to AN602

Comments

Notes

More powerful, more powerful ...

"Product 602"

Time for "mother Kuzma"

There was Paris - and there is no Paris

Sakharov's "cannibalistic" project

Tsar bomb in numbers:

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