Back Tsaar Bomba Afrikaans قنبلة القيصر Arabic Bomba del Zar AST Çar bombası Azerbaijani Цар-бомба Byelorussian Цар Бомба Bulgarian জার বোম্বা Bengali/Bangla Tsar Bomba Breton Bomba Tsar Catalan بۆمبی تزار CKB

Tsar Bomba

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

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

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

Tested on 30 October 1961, the test verified new design principles for high-yield thermonuclear charges, allowing, as its final report put it, the design of a nuclear device "of practically unlimited power".[9] The bomb was dropped by parachute from a Tu-95V aircraft, and detonated autonomously 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) above the cape Sukhoy Nos of Severny Island, Novaya Zemlya, 15 kilometres (8 nautical miles) from Mityushikha Bay, north of the Matochkin Strait.[10][11][12] Blast data and footage was recorded by a Soviet Tu-16. Both aircraft received radiation flash damage.

The bhangmeter results and other data suggested the bomb yielded around 58 Mt (243 PJ),[13] which was the accepted yield in technical literature until 1991, when Soviet scientists revealed that their instruments indicated a yield of 50 Mt (209 PJ).[4] As they had the instrumental data and access to the test site, their yield figure has been accepted as more accurate.[4][14] In theory, the bomb would have had a yield over 100 Mt (418 PJ) if it had included the natural uranium[15] tamper which featured in the design but was replaced with lead in the test to reduce radioactive fallout.[15] As only one bomb was built to completion, that capability has never been demonstrated.[15] The remaining bomb casings are located at the Russian Atomic Weapon Museum in Sarov and the Museum of Nuclear Weapons, All-Russian Scientific Research Institute Of Technical Physics, in Snezhinsk. The design was too large and heavy to be deployed operationally, although it influenced the initial development of the Proton rocket.

Tsar Bomba was a modification of an earlier project, RN202, which used a ballistic case of the same size but a very different internal mechanism.[15] Many published books, even some authored by those involved in product development of 602, contain inaccuracies that are replicated elsewhere,[16] including wrongly identifying Tsar Bomba as RDS-202 or RN202.

The United States government's reaction emphasized the lack of military usefulness, and signalled readiness to sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, eventually realized in 1963. It also prompted the disclosure of the US B41 nuclear bomb's 25 Mt (105 PJ) yield. In the Western world, the reaction focused on the incorrectly assumed record level of fission product fallout from a typical fissionable tamper design, similar to the US Castle Bravo test disaster.[17][18][19] In fact, the Tsar Bomba derived only 3% of its yield from fission, or 1.5 Mt.[20]

  1. ^ Bendix, Aria (1 September 2020). "A cloud of smoke and dust rises in the sky after the Tsar Bomba was detonated in October 1961". Ministry of Medium Machine Building (30-10-1961), Rosatom (20-08-2020), YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJhZ3i-HXS0 (24-08-2020), www.businessinsider.com Business Insider (September 1, 2020). Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference atomicheritage was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "The Test". atomicheritage.org & US National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. 8 August 2014. Archived from the original on 5 July 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference TsarSize was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Смотрины "Кузькиной матери". Как СССР сделал и взорвал "Царь-бомбу"". 29 October 2014., Russian
  6. ^ Lengel, Edward G. (29 August 2020). "Tsar Bomba: The Largest Atomic Test in World History". The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  7. ^ Dabrowski, Krzysztof (2021). Tsar Bomba: Live Testing of Soviet Nuclear Bombs, 1949-1962. Helion & Company. pp. v, 28, 49. ISBN 978-1-915113-37-5.
  8. ^ Wellerstein, Alex (2021). "The untold story of the world's biggest nuclear bomb". The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
  9. ^ Adamsky, V.B.; Smirnov, Yu.N. (1995). "50-мегатонный взрыв над Новой Землей [50 megaton explosion over Novaya Zemlya"]". Вопросы истории естествознания и техники.
  10. ^ Sakharov, Andrei (1990). Memoirs. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 215–225. ISBN 978-0-679-73595-3.
  11. ^ Khalturin, Vitaly I.; Rautian, Tatyana G.; Richards, Paul G.; Leith, William S. (2005). "A Review of Nuclear Testing by the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemlya, 1955–1990" (PDF). Science and Global Security. 13 (1): 1–42. Bibcode:2005S&GS...13....1K. doi:10.1080/08929880590961862. S2CID 122069080. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2006. Retrieved 14 October 2006.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference CIA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ "The Soviet Weapons Program - The Tsar Bomba". nuclearweaponarchive.org.
  14. ^ Johnson, William Robert (2 April 2009). "The Largest Nuclear Weapons". Multimegaton Weapons.
  15. ^ a b c d Veselov, A.V. (2006). Tsar Bomba. Atompress. p. 7.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chernyshev was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ "TEST DENOUNCED; White House Asserts Purpose Is to Incite 'Fright and Panic' Soviet Explodes Biggest A-Bomb, but 50-Megaton Force Is Doubted by U.S. Aides TEST DENOUNCED BY WHITE HOUSE 'Fright and Panic' Held Aim--Fall-out on Russia Is Hinted by Low Altitude". The New York Times. 31 October 1961. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  18. ^ "Sweden Rushes Precautions". The New York Times. 22 October 1961. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  19. ^ "UK: RUSSIA'S 50 MEGATON BOMB: PROFESSOR P. RITCHIE CALDER'S VIEWS". British Pathé. 15 November 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2025.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference bulletin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · View on Wikipedia

Developed by Nelliwinne