"Tsar Bomba" and other famous nuclear explosions. The hydrogen bomb is a modern weapon of mass destruction

The destructive power of which, when exploded, cannot be stopped by anyone. What is the most powerful bomb in the world? To answer this question, you need to understand the features of certain bombs.

What is a bomb?

Nuclear power plants operate on the principle of release and containment nuclear energy. This process must be controlled. The released energy turns into electricity. An atomic bomb causes a chain reaction that is completely uncontrollable, and the huge amount of released energy causes monstrous destruction. Uranium and plutonium are not so harmless elements of the periodic table; they lead to global catastrophes.

Atomic bomb

To understand what the most powerful atomic bomb on the planet is, we’ll learn more about everything. Hydrogen and atomic bombs are nuclear energy. If you combine two pieces of uranium, but each has a mass below the critical mass, then this “union” will far exceed the critical mass. Each neutron participates in a chain reaction because it splits the nucleus and releases another 2-3 neutrons, which cause new decay reactions.

Neutron force is completely beyond human control. In less than a second, hundreds of billions of newly formed decays not only release enormous amounts of energy, but also become sources of intense radiation. This radioactive rain covers the earth, fields, plants and all living things in a thick layer. If we talk about the disasters in Hiroshima, we can see that 1 gram caused the death of 200 thousand people.

Working principle and advantages of a vacuum bomb

It is believed that a vacuum bomb created by the latest technologies, can compete with nuclear. The fact is that instead of TNT it is used gaseous substance, which is several tens of times more powerful. The high-power aircraft bomb is the most powerful vacuum bomb in the world, which is not a nuclear weapon. It can destroy the enemy, but houses and equipment will not be damaged, and there will be no decay products.

What is the principle of its operation? Immediately after being dropped from the bomber, a detonator is activated at some distance from the ground. The body is destroyed and a huge cloud is sprayed. When mixed with oxygen, it begins to penetrate anywhere - into houses, bunkers, shelters. The burning out of oxygen creates a vacuum everywhere. When this bomb is dropped, a supersonic wave is produced and a very high temperature is generated.

The difference between an American vacuum bomb and a Russian one

The differences are that the latter can destroy an enemy even in a bunker using the appropriate warhead. During an explosion in the air, the warhead falls and hits the ground hard, burrowing to a depth of up to 30 meters. After the explosion, a cloud is formed, which, increasing in size, can penetrate into shelters and explode there. American warheads are filled with ordinary TNT, so they destroy buildings. Vacuum bomb destroys a specific object, as it has a smaller radius. It doesn’t matter which bomb is the most powerful - any of them delivers an incomparable destructive blow that affects all living things.

H-bomb

H-bomb- another terrible nuclear weapon. The combination of uranium and plutonium generates not only energy, but also temperature, which rises to a million degrees. Hydrogen isotopes combine to form helium nuclei, which creates a source of colossal energy. The hydrogen bomb is the most powerful - this is an indisputable fact. It is enough just to imagine that its explosion is equal to the explosions of 3,000 atomic bombs in Hiroshima. Both in the USA and in former USSR you can count 40 thousand bombs of varying power - nuclear and hydrogen.

The explosion of such ammunition is comparable to the processes observed inside the Sun and stars. Fast neutrons split the uranium shells of the bomb itself at enormous speed. Not only heat is released, but also radioactive fallout. There are up to 200 isotopes. Production of such nuclear weapons cheaper than nuclear, and its effect can be enhanced as many times as desired. This is the most powerful bomb detonated in the Soviet Union on August 12, 1953.

Consequences of the explosion

The result of a hydrogen bomb explosion is threefold. The very first thing that happens is a powerful blast wave is observed. Its power depends on the height of the explosion and the type of terrain, as well as the degree of air transparency. Large firestorms can form that do not subside for several hours. And yet the secondary and most dangerous consequence that the most powerful thermonuclear bomb- this is radioactive radiation and contamination of the surrounding area for a long time.

Radioactive remains from a hydrogen bomb explosion

When an explosion occurs, the fireball contains many very small radioactive particles that are retained in the atmospheric layer of the earth and remain there for a long time. Upon contact with the ground, this fireball creates incandescent dust consisting of decay particles. First, the larger one settles, and then the lighter one, which is carried hundreds of kilometers with the help of the wind. These particles can be seen with the naked eye; for example, such dust can be seen on snow. It is fatal if anyone gets nearby. The smallest particles can remain in the atmosphere for many years and thus “travel”, circling the entire planet several times. Their radioactive emissions will become weaker by the time they fall out as precipitation.

Its explosion is capable of wiping Moscow off the face of the earth in a matter of seconds. The city center could easily evaporate in the literal sense of the word, and everything else could turn into tiny rubble. The most powerful bomb in the world would wipe out New York and all its skyscrapers. It would leave behind a twenty-kilometer-long molten smooth crater. With such an explosion, it would not have been possible to escape by going down to the subway. The entire territory within a radius of 700 kilometers would be destroyed and infected with radioactive particles.

Explosion of the Tsar Bomba - to be or not to be?

In the summer of 1961, scientists decided to conduct a test and observe the explosion. The most powerful bomb in the world was to explode at a test site located in the very north of Russia. The huge area of ​​the landfill occupies the entire territory of the island New Earth. The scale of the defeat was supposed to be 1000 kilometers. The explosion could have left industrial centers such as Vorkuta, Dudinka and Norilsk contaminated. Scientists, having comprehended the scale of the disaster, put their heads together and realized that the test was cancelled.

There was no place to test the famous and incredibly powerful bomb anywhere on the planet, only Antarctica remained. But it was also not possible to carry out an explosion on the icy continent, since the territory is considered international and obtaining permission for such tests is simply unrealistic. I had to reduce the charge of this bomb by 2 times. The bomb was nevertheless detonated on October 30, 1961 in the same place - on the island of Novaya Zemlya (at an altitude of about 4 kilometers). During the explosion, a monstrous huge atomic mushroom was observed, which rose 67 kilometers into the air, and the shock wave circled the planet three times. By the way, in the Arzamas-16 museum in the city of Sarov, you can watch newsreels of the explosion on an excursion, although they claim that this spectacle is not for the faint of heart.

Everyone has already discussed one of the most unpleasant news of December - North Korea's successful testing of a hydrogen bomb. Kim Jong-un did not fail to hint (directly state) that he was ready at any moment to transform weapons from defensive to offensive, which caused an unprecedented stir in the press around the world. However, there were also optimists who declared that the tests were falsified: they say that the shadow of the Juche is falling in the wrong direction, and somehow the radioactive fallout is not visible. But why is the presence of a hydrogen bomb in the aggressor country such a significant factor for free countries, because even nuclear warheads that North Korea are available in abundance, have you ever scared anyone like that?

The hydrogen bomb, also known as the Hydrogen Bomb or HB, is a weapon of incredible destructive power, whose power is measured in megatons of TNT. The principle of operation of HB is based on the energy that is generated during thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei - exactly the same process occurs in the Sun.

How is a hydrogen bomb different from an atomic bomb?

Nuclear fusion, the process that occurs during the detonation of a hydrogen bomb, is the most powerful type of energy available to humanity. We have not yet learned how to use it for peaceful purposes, but we have adapted it for military purposes. This thermonuclear reaction, similar to what can be seen in stars, releases an incredible flow of energy. In atomic energy, energy comes from fission atomic nucleus, so the explosion atomic bomb much weaker.

First test

AND Soviet Union again ahead of many participants in the Cold War race. The first hydrogen bomb, manufactured under the leadership of the brilliant Sakharov, was tested at the secret Semipalatinsk test site - and, to put it mildly, they impressed not only scientists, but also Western spies.

Shock wave

The direct destructive effect of a hydrogen bomb is a powerful, highly intense shock wave. Its power depends on the size of the bomb itself and the height at which the charge detonated.

Thermal effect

A hydrogen bomb of only 20 megatons (the size of the largest tested at this moment bomb - 58 megatons) creates a huge amount of thermal energy: concrete melted within a radius of five kilometers from the test site of the projectile. Within a nine-kilometer radius, all living things will be destroyed; neither equipment nor buildings will survive. The diameter of the crater formed by the explosion will exceed two kilometers, and its depth will fluctuate about fifty meters.

Fire ball

The most spectacular thing after the explosion will seem to observers to be a huge fireball: flaming storms initiated by the detonation of a hydrogen bomb will support themselves, drawing more and more flammable material into the funnel.

Radiation contamination

But the most dangerous consequence of the explosion will, of course, be radiation contamination. Decay heavy elements in a raging fiery whirlwind, it will fill the atmosphere with tiny particles of radioactive dust - it is so light that when it enters the atmosphere, it can circle the globe two or three times and only then fall out in the form of precipitation. Thus, one explosion of a 100 megaton bomb could have consequences for the entire planet.

Tsar bomb

58 megatons - that's how much the largest hydrogen bomb, exploded at the test site of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, weighed. Shock wave circled the globe three times, forcing the opponents of the USSR to once again become convinced of the enormous destructive power of these weapons. Veselchak Khrushchev joked at the plenum that they didn’t make another bomb only for fear of breaking the glass in the Kremlin.

Our article is devoted to the history of creation and general principles synthesis of such a device, sometimes called hydrogen. Instead of releasing explosive energy by splitting the nuclei of heavy elements like uranium, it generates even more energy by fusing the nuclei of light elements (such as isotopes of hydrogen) into one heavy one (such as helium).

Why is nuclear fusion preferable?

In a thermonuclear reaction, which consists of the fusion of nuclei participating in it chemical elements, significantly more energy is generated per unit mass physical device than in a pure atomic bomb, realizing nuclear reaction division.

In an atomic bomb, fissile nuclear fuel quickly, under the influence of the energy of detonation of conventional explosives, combines in a small spherical volume, where its so-called critical mass is created, and the fission reaction begins. In this case, many neutrons released from fissile nuclei will cause the fission of other nuclei in the fuel mass, which also release additional neutrons, leading to a chain reaction. It covers no more than 20% of the fuel before the bomb explodes, or perhaps much less if conditions are not ideal: as in the atomic bombs Little Kid dropped on Hiroshima and Fat Man that hit Nagasaki, efficiency (if such a term can be applied to them) apply) were only 1.38% and 13%, respectively.

The fusion (or fusion) of nuclei covers the entire mass of the bomb charge and lasts as long as neutrons can find thermonuclear fuel that has not yet reacted. Therefore, the mass and explosive power of such a bomb are theoretically unlimited. Such a merger could theoretically continue indefinitely. Indeed, the thermonuclear bomb is one of the potential doomsday devices that could destroy all human life.

What is a nuclear fusion reaction?

Fuel for the reaction thermonuclear fusion The isotopes of hydrogen are deuterium or tritium. The first differs from ordinary hydrogen in that its nucleus, in addition to one proton, also contains a neutron, and the tritium nucleus already has two neutrons. IN natural water There is one deuterium atom for every 7000 hydrogen atoms, but out of its quantity. contained in a glass of water, as a result of a thermonuclear reaction, the same amount of heat can be obtained as from the combustion of 200 liters of gasoline. At a 1946 meeting with politicians, the father of the American hydrogen bomb, Edward Teller, stressed that deuterium provided more energy per gram of weight than uranium or plutonium, but cost twenty cents per gram compared with several hundred dollars per gram of fission fuel. Tritium does not occur in nature in a free state at all, so it is much more expensive than deuterium, with a market price of tens of thousands of dollars per gram, however greatest number energy is released precisely in the reaction of fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei, in which the nucleus of a helium atom is formed and a neutron is released, carrying away excess energy of 17.59 MeV

D + T → 4 He + n + 17.59 MeV.

This reaction is shown schematically in the figure below.

Is it a lot or a little? As you know, everything is learned by comparison. So, the energy of 1 MeV is approximately 2.3 million times more than that released during the combustion of 1 kg of oil. Consequently, the fusion of only two nuclei of deuterium and tritium releases as much energy as is released during the combustion of 2.3∙10 6 ∙17.59 = 40.5∙10 6 kg of oil. But we're talking about only about two atoms. You can imagine how high the stakes were in the second half of the 40s of the last century, when work began in the USA and the USSR, which resulted in a thermonuclear bomb.

How it all began

As early as the summer of 1942, at the beginning of the atomic bomb project in the United States (the Manhattan Project) and later in a similar Soviet program, long before a bomb based on the fission of uranium nuclei was built, the attention of some participants in these programs was drawn to the device, which can use a much more powerful nuclear fusion reaction. In the USA, a supporter of this approach, and even, one might say, its apologist, was the above-mentioned Edward Teller. In the USSR, this direction was developed by Andrei Sakharov, a future academician and dissident.

For Teller, his fascination with thermonuclear fusion during the years of creating the atomic bomb was rather a disservice. As a participant in the Manhattan Project, he persistently called for the redirection of funds to implement own ideas, whose goal was a hydrogen and thermonuclear bomb, which did not please the leadership and caused tension in relations. Since at that time the thermonuclear direction of research was not supported, after the creation of the atomic bomb Teller left the project and began teaching, as well as researching elementary particles.

However, the beginning cold war, and most of all, the creation and successful testing of the Soviet atomic bomb in 1949, became a new chance for the ardent anti-communist Teller to realize his scientific ideas. He returns to the Los Alamos laboratory, where the atomic bomb was created, and, together with Stanislav Ulam and Cornelius Everett, begins calculations.

The principle of a thermonuclear bomb

In order for the nuclear fusion reaction to begin, the bomb charge must be instantly heated to a temperature of 50 million degrees. The thermonuclear bomb scheme proposed by Teller uses for this purpose the explosion of a small atomic bomb, which is located inside the hydrogen casing. It can be argued that there were three generations in the development of her project in the 40s of the last century:

• Teller's variation, known as the "classic super";
• more complex, but also more realistic designs of several concentric spheres;
• the final version of the Teller-Ulam design, which is the basis of all thermonuclear weapon systems operating today.

Thermonuclear bombs of the USSR, whose creation was pioneered by Andrei Sakharov, went through similar design stages. He, apparently, completely independently and independently of the Americans (which cannot be said about the Soviet atomic bomb, created by the joint efforts of scientists and intelligence officers working in the USA) went through all of the above design stages.

The first two generations had the property that they had a succession of interlocking "layers", each of which enhanced some aspect of the previous one, and in some cases established Feedback. There was no clear division between the primary atomic bomb and the secondary thermonuclear one. In contrast, the Teller-Ulam thermonuclear bomb diagram sharply distinguishes between a primary explosion, a secondary explosion, and, if necessary, an additional one.

The device of a thermonuclear bomb according to the Teller-Ulam principle

Many of its details still remain classified, but it is reasonably certain that all thermonuclear weapons currently available are based on the device created by Edward Telleros and Stanislaw Ulam, in which an atomic bomb (i.e. the primary charge) is used to generate radiation, compresses and heats fusion fuel. Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union apparently independently came up with a similar concept, which he called the "third idea."

The design of a thermonuclear bomb in this version is shown schematically in the figure below.

She had cylindrical shape, with a roughly spherical primary atomic bomb at one end. The secondary thermonuclear charge in the first, not yet industrial samples, was made of liquid deuterium, a little later it became solid from chemical compound called lithium deuteride.

The fact is that industry has long used lithium hydride LiH for balloon-free hydrogen transportation. The developers of the bomb (this idea was first used in the USSR) simply proposed taking its isotope deuterium instead of ordinary hydrogen and combining it with lithium, since it is much easier to make a bomb with a solid thermonuclear charge.

The shape of the secondary charge was a cylinder placed in a container with a lead (or uranium) shell. Between the charges there is a neutron protection shield. The space between the walls of the container with thermonuclear fuel and the bomb body is filled with special plastic, usually polystyrene foam. The bomb body itself is made of steel or aluminum.

These shapes have changed in recent designs such as the one shown below.

In it, the primary charge is flattened, like a watermelon or an American football ball, and the secondary charge is spherical. Such shapes fit much more efficiently into the internal volume of conical missile warheads.

Thermonuclear explosion sequence

When the primary atomic bomb detonates, in the first moments of this process powerful X-ray radiation (neutron flux) is generated, which is partially blocked by the neutron protection shield, and is reflected from internal lining a housing surrounding the secondary charge so that x-rays fall symmetrically on it along its entire length.

On initial stages In a thermonuclear reaction, neutrons from an atomic explosion are absorbed by a plastic filler to prevent the fuel from heating up too quickly.

X-rays initially cause the appearance of a dense plastic foam that fills the space between the housing and the secondary charge, which quickly turns into a plasma state that heats and compresses the secondary charge.

In addition, the X-rays evaporate the surface of the container surrounding the secondary charge. The substance of the container, evaporating symmetrically relative to this charge, acquires a certain impulse directed from its axis, and the layers of the secondary charge, according to the law of conservation of momentum, receive an impulse directed towards the axis of the device. The principle here is the same as in a rocket, only if you imagine that rocket fuel scatters symmetrically from its axis, and the body contracts inward.

As a result of such compression of thermonuclear fuel, its volume decreases thousands of times, and the temperature reaches the level at which the nuclear fusion reaction begins. A thermonuclear bomb explodes. The reaction is accompanied by the formation of tritium nuclei, which merge with deuterium nuclei initially present in the secondary charge.

The first secondary charges were built around a rod core of plutonium, informally called a "candle", which entered into a nuclear fission reaction, i.e., another, additional atomic explosion was carried out in order to further raise the temperature to ensure the start of the nuclear fusion reaction. It is currently believed that more efficient systems compression eliminated the "candle", allowing further miniaturization of the bomb design.

Operation Ivy

This was the name given to the tests of American thermonuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands in 1952, during which the first thermonuclear bomb was detonated. It was called Ivy Mike and was built by standard scheme Teller-Ulama. Its secondary thermonuclear charge was placed in a cylindrical container, which was a thermally insulated Dewar flask with thermonuclear fuel in the form of liquid deuterium, along the axis of which a “candle” of 239-plutonium ran. The dewar, in turn, was covered with a layer of 238-uranium weighing more than 5 metric tons, which evaporated during the explosion, providing symmetrical compression of the thermonuclear fuel. The container containing the primary and secondary charges was housed in a steel casing 80 inches wide by 244 inches long with walls 10-12 inches thick, which was the largest example forged product until that time. The inner surface of the case was lined with sheets of lead and polyethylene to reflect radiation after the explosion of the primary charge and create plasma that heats the secondary charge. The entire device weighed 82 tons. A view of the device shortly before the explosion is shown in the photo below.

The first test of a thermonuclear bomb took place on October 31, 1952. The power of the explosion was 10.4 megatons. Attol Eniwetok, where it was produced, was completely destroyed. The moment of the explosion is shown in the photo below.

The USSR gives a symmetrical answer

The US thermonuclear championship did not last long. On August 12, 1953, the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb RDS-6, developed under the leadership of Andrei Sakharov and Yuli Khariton, was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site. From the description above, it becomes clear that the Americans at Enewetok did not actually detonate a bomb, but a type of ready-to-use ammunition, but rather laboratory device, cumbersome and very imperfect. Soviet scientists, despite the small power of only 400 kg, tested a completely finished ammunition with thermonuclear fuel in the form of solid lithium deuteride, and not liquid deuterium, like the Americans. By the way, it should be noted that only the 6 Li isotope is used in lithium deuteride (this is due to the peculiarities of thermonuclear reactions), and in nature it is mixed with the 7 Li isotope. Therefore, special production facilities were built to separate lithium isotopes and select only 6 Li.

Reaching Power Limit

What followed was a decade of continuous arms race, during which the power of thermonuclear munitions continually increased. Finally, on October 30, 1961, in the USSR over the Novaya Zemlya test site in the air at an altitude of about 4 km, the most powerful thermonuclear bomb that had ever been built and tested, known in the West as the “Tsar Bomba,” was exploded.

This three-stage munition was actually developed as a 101.5-megaton bomb, but the desire to reduce radioactive contamination of the area forced the developers to abandon the third stage with a yield of 50 megatons and reduce the design yield of the device to 51.5 megatons. At the same time, the power of the explosion of the primary atomic charge was 1.5 megatons, and the second thermonuclear stage was supposed to give another 50. The actual power of the explosion was up to 58 megatons. The appearance of the bomb is shown in the photo below.

Its consequences were impressive. Despite the very significant height of the explosion of 4000 m, the incredibly bright fireball with its lower edge almost reached the Earth, and with its upper edge it rose to a height of more than 4.5 km. The pressure below the burst point was six times higher than the peak pressure of the Hiroshima explosion. The flash of light was so bright that it was visible at a distance of 1000 kilometers, despite the cloudy weather. One of the test participants saw a bright flash through dark glasses and felt the effects of the thermal pulse even at a distance of 270 km. A photo of the moment of the explosion is shown below.

It was shown that the power of a thermonuclear charge really has no limitations. After all, it was enough to complete the third stage, and the calculated power would be achieved. But it is possible to increase the number of stages further, since the weight of the Tsar Bomba was no more than 27 tons. The appearance of this device is shown in the photo below.

After these tests, it became clear to many politicians and military men both in the USSR and in the USA that the limit of the nuclear arms race had been reached and it needed to be stopped.

Modern Russia inherited the nuclear arsenal of the USSR. Today, Russia's thermonuclear bombs continue to serve as a deterrent to those seeking global hegemony. Let's hope they only play their role as a deterrent and are never detonated.

The sun as a fusion reactor

It is well known that the temperature of the Sun, or more precisely its core, reaching 15,000,000 °K, is maintained due to the continuous occurrence of thermonuclear reactions. However, everything that we could glean from the previous text speaks of the explosive nature of such processes. Then why doesn't the Sun explode like a thermonuclear bomb?

The fact is that with a huge share of hydrogen in the solar mass, which reaches 71%, the share of its isotope deuterium, the nuclei of which alone can participate in the thermonuclear fusion reaction, is negligible. The fact is that deuterium nuclei themselves are formed as a result of the merger of two hydrogen nuclei, and not just a merger, but with the decay of one of the protons into a neutron, positron and neutrino (so-called beta decay), which is a rare event. In this case, the resulting deuterium nuclei are distributed fairly evenly throughout the volume of the solar core. Therefore, with its enormous size and mass, individual and rare centers of thermonuclear reactions of relatively low power are, as it were, smeared throughout its entire core of the Sun. The heat released during these reactions is clearly not enough to instantly burn out all the deuterium in the Sun, but it is enough to heat it to a temperature that ensures life on Earth.

August 21st, 2015

The Tsar Bomba is the nickname 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 the number of atomic bombs, but also in 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 compressing nuclear fuel using conventional explosive charges - but they were not successful, since it was not possible to obtain 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, on the Eniwetak Atoll, the United States exploded a charge with a yield of 10.4 megatons (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, 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, tests of a hydrogen bomb were carried out in Great Britain.

Design studies lasted for several years, and final stage The 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, the initial option was rejected, since in this form the bomb explosion 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 were preparing a special modification of the Tu-95 bomber for it - the Tu-95B.

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 had 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. On October 17, 1961, the Soviet leader announced the upcoming tests in a report at the XXII Party Congress.

The testing 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. The bomb was dropped from a parachute system 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 amount of energy - thanks to this, stars constantly release huge amounts of energy. 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 temperatures and pressures, as well as to separate 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, light radiation could potentially cause third degree burns up to 100 kilometers away.

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 in the area, equal territory 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. 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.

Oddly enough, the main skeptics turned out to be the military. From their point of view, such weapons had no practical meaning. 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 direct-flow water-steam nuclear power plant for such a torpedo. jet engine. 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
• 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 needed to equal the power of the Tsar Bomba: a giant TNT cube with a side 312 meters (height of the Eiffel Tower)

During the construction of the site for nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, on August 12, 1953, I had to survive the explosion of the first globe a hydrogen bomb with a yield of 400 kilotons, the explosion occurred suddenly. The earth shook beneath us like water. A wave of the earth's surface passed and raised us to a height of more than a meter. And we were about 30 kilometers away from the epicenter of the explosion. A barrage of air waves threw us to the ground. I rolled over it for several meters, like wood chips. There was a wild roar. Lightning flashed dazzlingly. They inspired animal terror.

When we, observers of this nightmare, stood up, a nuclear mushroom was hanging above us. Warmth emanated from it and a cracking sound was heard. I looked enchanted at the stem of a giant mushroom. Suddenly a plane flew up to him and began making monstrous turns. I thought it was a hero pilot taking samples of radioactive air. Then the plane dived into the mushroom stem and disappeared... It was amazing and scary.

There were indeed planes, tanks and other equipment on the training ground. But later inquiries showed that not a single plane took air samples from the nuclear mushroom. Was this really a hallucination? The mystery was solved later. I realized that this was the effect chimney of gigantic proportions. There were no planes or tanks on the field after the explosion. But experts believed that they evaporated due to high temperature. I believe that they were simply sucked into the fire mushroom. My observations and impressions were confirmed by other evidence.

On November 22, 1955, an even more powerful explosion was carried out. The charge of the hydrogen bomb was 600 kilotons. We prepared the site for this new explosion 2.5 kilometers from the epicenter of the previous nuclear explosion. The melted radioactive crust of the earth was buried immediately in trenches dug by bulldozers; They were preparing a new batch of equipment that was supposed to burn in the flame of a hydrogen bomb. The head of the construction of the Semipalatinsk test site was R. E. Ruzanov. He left a evocative description of this second explosion.

Residents of “Bereg” (testers’ residential town), now the city of Kurchatov, were woken up at 5 o’clock in the morning. It was -15°C. Everyone was taken to the stadium. Windows and doors in the houses were left open.

At the appointed hour, a giant plane appeared, accompanied by fighters.

The flash of the explosion occurred unexpectedly and frighteningly. She was brighter than the sun. The sun has dimmed. It disappeared. The clouds have disappeared. The sky turned black and blue. There was a blow of terrible force. He reached the stadium with the testers. The stadium was 60 kilometers from the epicenter. Despite this, the air wave knocked people to the ground and threw them tens of meters towards the stands. Thousands of people were knocked down. There was a wild cry from these crowds. Women and children were screaming. The entire stadium was filled with groans of injury and pain, which instantly shocked the people. The stadium with testers and residents of the town drowned in dust. The city was also invisible from the dust. The horizon where the training ground was was boiling in clouds of flame. The leg of the atomic mushroom also seemed to be boiling. She was moving. It seemed as if a boiling cloud was about to approach the stadium and cover us all. It was clearly visible how tanks, planes, and parts of destroyed structures specially built on the training ground began to be drawn into the cloud from the ground and disappeared into it. The thought drilled into my head: we too will be drawn into this cloud! Everyone was overcome by numbness and horror.

Suddenly, the stem of a nuclear mushroom came off the boiling cloud above. The cloud rose higher, and the leg sank to the ground. Only then did people come to their senses. Everyone rushed to the houses. There were no windows, doors, roofs or belongings. Everything was scattered around. Those injured during the tests were hastily collected and sent to the hospital...

A week later, officers who arrived from the Semipalatinsk test site spoke in whispers about this monstrous spectacle. About the suffering that people endured. About tanks flying in the air. Comparing these stories with my observations, I realized that I had witnessed a phenomenon that can be called the chimney effect. Only on a gigantic scale.

During the hydrogen explosion, huge thermal masses were torn off from the surface of the earth and moved towards the center of the mushroom. This effect arose due to the monstrous temperatures produced by a nuclear explosion. IN initial stage The temperature of the explosion was 30 thousand degrees Celsius. In the leg of the nuclear mushroom it was at least 8 thousand. A huge, monstrous suction force arose, drawing any objects standing at the test site into the epicenter of the explosion. Therefore, the plane that I saw during the first nuclear explosion was not a hallucination. He was simply pulled into the stem of the mushroom, and he made incredible turns there...

The process that I observed during the explosion of a hydrogen bomb is very dangerous. Not only yours high temperature, but also the effect that I understood of the absorption of gigantic masses, be it the air or water shell of the Earth.

My calculation in 1962 showed that if a nuclear mushroom pierced the atmosphere to a great height, it could cause a planetary catastrophe. When the mushroom rises to a height of 30 kilometers, the process of sucking the Earth's water-air masses into space will begin. The vacuum will begin to work like a pump. The earth will lose its air and water shells along with the biosphere. Humanity will perish.

I calculated that for this apocalyptic process, an atomic bomb of only 2 thousand kilotons is enough, that is, only three times more powerful than the second one. hydrogen explosion. This is the simplest man-made scenario for the death of humanity.

At one time I was forbidden to talk about it. Today I consider it my duty to speak about the threat to humanity directly and openly.

Huge reserves of nuclear weapons have been accumulated on Earth. Reactors are working nuclear power plants Worldwide. They can become prey for terrorists. The explosion of these objects can reach a power greater than 2 thousand kilotons. Potentially, the scenario of the death of civilization has already been prepared.

What follows from this? It is necessary to protect nuclear facilities from possible terrorism so carefully that they are completely inaccessible to it. Otherwise, planetary catastrophe is inevitable.

Sergey Alekseenko

construction participant

Semipolatinsk Nuclear