The most powerful bomb in the world. Which bomb is stronger: vacuum or thermonuclear? The hydrogen bomb is a modern weapon of mass destruction.

15.10.2019

Read also

Dream interpretation bombing, why dream of bombing in a dream to see

We interpret dreams about the river and everything connected with it

On October 30, 1961, the most powerful explosion in the history of mankind thundered at the Soviet nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya. The nuclear mushroom rose to a height of 67 kilometers, and the diameter of the “cap” of this mushroom was 95 kilometers. The shock wave circled three times Earth(and the blast wave demolished wooden buildings at a distance of several hundred kilometers from the landfill). The flash of the explosion was visible from a distance of a thousand kilometers, despite the fact that thick clouds hung over Novaya Zemlya. For almost an hour there was no radio communication in the entire Arctic. The power of the explosion, according to various sources, ranged from 50 to 57 megatons (millions of tons of TNT).

However, as Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev joked, they did not begin to increase the power of the bomb to 100 megatons, only because in this case all the windows in Moscow would have been knocked out. But, in every joke there is a share of a joke - it was originally planned to detonate a 100 megaton bomb. And the explosion on Novaya Zemlya convincingly proved that the creation of a bomb with a capacity of at least 100 megatons, at least 200 megatons, is a completely feasible task. But even 50 megatons is almost ten times the capacity of all the ammunition used up in the entire Second World War. world war by all participating countries. In addition, in the case of testing a product with a capacity of 100 megatons, only a melted crater would remain from the test site on Novaya Zemlya (and from most of this island). In Moscow, the glass, most likely, would have survived, but in Murmansk they could have taken off.

Model of a hydrogen bomb. Historical and Memorial Museum nuclear weapons in Sarov

The device, blown up at an altitude of 4200 meters above sea level on October 30, 1961, went down in history under the name "Tsar Bomba". Another unofficial name is "Kuzkina Mother". And the official name of this hydrogen bomb was not so loud - a modest product AN602. This miracle weapon had no military significance - not tons of TNT equivalent, but in ordinary metric tons, the “product” weighed 26 tons and it would be problematic to deliver it to the “addressee”. It was a show of force - a clear proof that the Land of the Soviets is capable of creating weapons of mass destruction of any power. What made the leadership of our country take such an unprecedented step? Of course, nothing else than the aggravation of relations with the United States. Until recently, it seemed that the United States and Soviet Union reached mutual understanding on all issues - in September 1959, Khrushchev paid an official visit to the United States, and a return visit to Moscow by President Dwight Eisenhower was also planned. But on May 1, 1960, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down over Soviet territory. April 1961 American intelligence agencies organized the landing of detachments of well-prepared and trained Cuban emigrants in Playa Giron Bay (this adventure ended in a convincing victory for Fidel Castro). In Europe, the great powers could not decide on the status West Berlin. As a result, on August 13, 1961, the capital of Germany was blocked off by the famous Berlin Wall. Finally, in 1961, the United States deployed PGM-19 Jupiter missiles in Turkey - the European part of Russia (including Moscow) was within range of these missiles (a year later, the Soviet Union would deploy missiles in Cuba and the famous Caribbean Crisis would begin). This is not to mention the fact that at that time there was no parity in the number of nuclear charges and their carriers between the Soviet Union and America - we could oppose only 300 to 6 thousand American warheads. So, the demonstration of thermonuclear power was not at all superfluous in the current situation.

Soviet short film about the test of the Tsar Bomba

There is a popular myth that the superbomb was developed on the orders of Khrushchev all in the same 1961 in a record short time– in just 112 days. In fact, the development of the bomb has been going on since 1954. And in 1961, the developers simply brought the existing “product” to required power. In parallel, the Tupolev Design Bureau was engaged in the modernization of the Tu-16 and Tu-95 aircraft for new weapons. According to initial calculations, the weight of the bomb was supposed to be at least 40 tons, but the aircraft designers explained to the nuclear scientists that this moment there are no carriers for a product with such a weight and cannot be. The nuclear scientists promised to reduce the weight of the bomb to a perfectly acceptable 20 tons. True, such a weight and such dimensions required a complete reworking of the bomb bays, mounts, and bomb bays.

H-bomb explosion

Work on the bomb was carried out by a group of young nuclear physicists led by I.V. Kurchatov. This group also included Andrei Sakharov, who at that time had not yet thought about dissidence. Moreover, he was one of the leading developers of the product.

This power was achieved through the use of a multi-stage design - a uranium charge with a capacity of "only" one and a half megatons launched nuclear reaction in the charge of the second stage, with a capacity of 50 megatons. Without changing the dimensions of the bomb, it was possible to make it a three-stage one (this is already over 100 megatons). Theoretically, the number of stage charges could be unlimited. The design of the bomb was unique for its time.

Khrushchev hurried the developers - in October, the XXII Congress of the CPSU came off in the newly built Kremlin Palace of Congresses and it would be necessary to announce the news about the most powerful explosion in the history of mankind from the rostrum of the congress. And on October 30, October 30, 1961, Khrushchev received a long-awaited telegram signed by the Minister of Medium Machine Building E. P. Slavsky and Marshal of the Soviet Union K. S. Moskalenko (test leaders):

"Moscow. Kremlin. N. S. Khrushchev.
The test on Novaya Zemlya was a success. The safety of the testers and the nearby population is ensured. The landfill and all participants completed the task of the Motherland. Let's go back to the convention."

The explosion of the Tsar Bomba almost immediately served as fertile ground for different kind myths. Some of them were distributed ... by the official press. So, for example, Pravda called the Tsar Bomba nothing more than yesterday's day of atomic weapons and claimed that more powerful charges had already been created. Not without rumors about a self-sustaining thermonuclear reaction in the atmosphere. The decrease in the power of the explosion, according to some, was due to the fear of splitting the earth's crust or... cause a thermonuclear reaction in the oceans.

But be that as it may, a year later, during Caribbean Crisis The United States still had an overwhelming superiority in the number of nuclear weapons. But they did not dare to apply them.

In addition, this mega-explosion is believed to have helped move the ban negotiations off the ground. nuclear testing in three environments that have been held in Geneva since the late fifties. In 1959-60, all the nuclear powers, with the exception of France, accepted a unilateral test waiver while these negotiations were under way. But about the reasons that forced the Soviet Union not to comply with its obligations, we spoke below. After the explosion at Novaya Zemlya, negotiations resumed. And on October 10, 1963, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Tests in the Atmosphere was signed in Moscow. outer space and under water. As long as this Treaty is respected, the Soviet Tsar Bomba will remain the most powerful explosive device in human history.

Modern computer reconstruction

There are many different political clubs in the world. Big, now already, seven, G20, BRICS, SCO, NATO, European Union, to some extent. However, none of these clubs can boast a unique function - the ability to destroy the world as we know it. The "nuclear club" possesses similar possibilities.

To date, there are 9 countries with nuclear weapons:

Russia;
United Kingdom;
France;
India
Pakistan;
Israel;
DPRK.

Countries are ranked according to the appearance of nuclear weapons in their arsenal. If the list were built by the number of warheads, then Russia would be in first place with its 8,000 units, 1,600 of which can be launched right now. The states are only 700 units behind, but "at hand" they have 320 more charges. "Nuclear club" is a purely conditional concept, in fact there is no club. There are a number of agreements between the countries on non-proliferation and the reduction of stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

The first tests of the atomic bomb, as you know, were carried out by the United States back in 1945. This weapon was tested in the "field" conditions of the Second World War on the inhabitants of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They operate on the principle of division. During the explosion, a chain reaction is started, which provokes the fission of the nuclei into two, with the accompanying release of energy. Uranium and plutonium are mainly used for this reaction. It is with these elements that our ideas about what nuclear bombs are made of are connected. Since uranium occurs in nature only as a mixture of three isotopes, of which only one is capable of supporting such a reaction, it is necessary to enrich uranium. The alternative is plutonium-239, which does not occur naturally and must be produced from uranium.

If a fission reaction takes place in a uranium bomb, then a fusion reaction occurs in a hydrogen bomb - this is the essence of how a hydrogen bomb differs from an atomic bomb. We all know that the sun gives us light, warmth, and one might say life. The same processes that take place in the sun can easily destroy cities and countries. The explosion of a hydrogen bomb was born by the fusion reaction of light nuclei, the so-called thermonuclear fusion. This "miracle" is possible thanks to hydrogen isotopes - deuterium and tritium. That is why the bomb is called a hydrogen bomb. You can also see the name "thermo nuclear bomb”, by the reaction that underlies this weapon.

After the world saw the destructive power of nuclear weapons, in August 1945, the USSR began a race that continued until its collapse. The United States was the first to create, test and use nuclear weapons, the first to detonate a hydrogen bomb, but the USSR can be credited with the first production of a compact hydrogen bomb that can be delivered to the enemy on a conventional Tu-16. The first US bomb was the size of a three-story house, a hydrogen bomb of this size is of little use. The Soviets received such weapons as early as 1952, while the first "adequate" US bomb was adopted only in 1954. If you look back and analyze the explosions in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, you can conclude that they were not so powerful. . Two bombs in total destroyed both cities and killed, according to various sources, up to 220,000 people. Carpet bombing Tokyo in a day could take the lives of 150-200,000 people without any nuclear weapons. It's connected with low power the first bombs - only a few tens of kilotons of TNT. Hydrogen bombs were tested with an eye to overcoming 1 megaton or more.

First Soviet bomb was tested with a claim of 3 Mt, but ended up testing 1.6 Mt.

The most powerful hydrogen bomb was tested by the Soviets in 1961. Its capacity reached 58-75 Mt, while the declared 51 Mt. "Tsar" plunged the world into a slight shock, in the literal sense. The shock wave circled the planet three times. at the landfill ( New Earth) there was not a single hill left, the explosion was heard at a distance of 800 km. The fireball reached a diameter of almost 5 km, the “mushroom” grew by 67 km, and the diameter of its cap was almost 100 km. The consequences of such an explosion in major city hard to imagine. According to many experts, it was the test of a hydrogen bomb of such power (the States had four times less bombs at that time) that was the first step towards signing various treaties on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, their testing and reduction of production. The world for the first time thought about its own security, which was really under threat.

As mentioned earlier, the principle of operation of a hydrogen bomb is based on a fusion reaction. Thermonuclear fusion is the process of fusion of two nuclei into one, with the formation of a third element, the release of a fourth and energy. The forces that repel the nuclei are colossal, so for the atoms to get close enough to merge, the temperature must be simply enormous. Scientists have been puzzling over cold thermonuclear fusion for centuries, trying to bring the fusion temperature down to room temperature, ideally. In this case, humanity will have access to the energy of the future. As for thermonuclear reaction nowadays, it still requires lighting a miniature sun here on Earth to start it - usually bombs use a uranium or plutonium charge to start the fusion.

In addition to the consequences described above from the use of a bomb of tens of megatons, a hydrogen bomb, like any nuclear weapon, has a number of consequences from its use. Some people tend to think that the hydrogen bomb is a "cleaner weapon" than a conventional bomb. Perhaps it has something to do with the name. People hear the word "water" and think that it has something to do with water and hydrogen, and therefore the consequences are not so dire. In fact, this is certainly not the case, because the action of the hydrogen bomb is based on extremely radioactive substances. It is theoretically possible to make a bomb without a uranium charge, but this is impractical due to the complexity of the process, so the pure fusion reaction is "diluted" with uranium to increase power. At the same time, the amount of radioactive fallout grows to 1000%. Everything that enters the fireball will be destroyed, the zone in the radius of destruction will become uninhabitable for people for decades. Radioactive fallout can harm people's health hundreds and thousands of kilometers away. Specific figures, the area of infection can be calculated, knowing the strength of the charge.

However, the destruction of cities is not the worst thing that can happen "thanks" to weapons of mass destruction. After nuclear war the world will not be completely destroyed. Thousands of large cities, billions of people will remain on the planet, and only a small percentage of territories will lose their status as “livable”. AT long term the whole world will be threatened by the so-called "nuclear winter". Undermining the nuclear arsenal of the "club" can provoke the release into the atmosphere of a sufficient amount of matter (dust, soot, smoke) to "diminish" the brightness of the sun. A veil that can spread across the planet will destroy crops for several years to come, provoking famine and inevitable population decline. There has already been a “year without a summer” in history, after a major volcanic eruption in 1816, so a nuclear winter looks more than real. Again, depending on how the war goes, we can get the following types global climate change:

cooling by 1 degree, will pass unnoticed;
nuclear autumn - cooling by 2-4 degrees, crop failures and increased formation of hurricanes are possible;
an analogue of "a year without summer" - when the temperature dropped significantly, by several degrees per year;
the little ice age - the temperature can drop by 30 - 40 degrees for a considerable time, will be accompanied by depopulation of a number of northern zones and crop failures;
ice age - the development of small ice age when the reflection sun rays from the surface it can reach a certain critical level and the temperature will continue to fall, the difference is only in temperature;
irreversible cooling is a very sad version of the ice age, which, under the influence of many factors, will turn the Earth into a new planet.

The nuclear winter theory is constantly being criticized, and its implications seem a little overblown. However, one should not doubt its imminent offensive in any global conflict with the use of hydrogen bombs.

The Cold War is long over, and therefore, nuclear hysteria can only be seen in old Hollywood films and on the covers of rare magazines and comics. Despite this, we may be on the verge of a serious nuclear conflict, if not a big one. All this thanks to the lover of rockets and the hero of the fight against the imperialist habits of the United States - Kim Jong-un. H-bomb North Korea is still a hypothetical object, only circumstantial evidence speaks of its existence. Of course the government North Korea constantly reports that they managed to make new bombs, so far no one has seen them live. Naturally, the States and their allies - Japan and South Korea, are a little more concerned about the presence, even if hypothetical, of such weapons in the DPRK. The reality is that at the moment, the DPRK does not have enough technology to successfully attack the United States, which they announce to the whole world every year. Even an attack on neighboring Japan or the South may not be very successful, if at all, but every year the danger of a new conflict on the Korean peninsula is growing.

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

To understand what is the most powerful atomic bomb on the planet, we will learn more about everything. Hydrogen and atomic bombs are nuclear power. If you combine two pieces of uranium, but each will have a mass below the critical mass, then this "union" will greatly exceed the critical mass. Each neutron participates in a chain reaction, because it splits the nucleus and releases 2-3 more 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 a huge amount of energy, but also become sources of the strongest radiation. This radioactive rain covers the earth, fields, plants and all living things in a thick layer. If we talk about disasters in Hiroshima, we can see that 1 gram of explosive caused the death of 200 thousand people.

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

What is the principle of its work? Immediately after dropping from a bomber, a detonator fires at some distance from the ground. The hull collapses and a huge cloud is dispersed. When mixed with oxygen, it begins to penetrate anywhere - into houses, bunkers, shelters. The burning of oxygen forms 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 the enemy, even in the bunker, with the help of an appropriate warhead. During the explosion in the air, the warhead falls and hits the ground hard, burrowing to a depth of 30 meters. After the explosion, a cloud is formed, which, increasing in size, can penetrate shelters and explode there. American warheads, on the other hand, are filled with ordinary TNT, which is why they destroy buildings. vacuum bomb destroys a certain 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

The hydrogen bomb is another terrible nuclear weapon. The combination of uranium and plutonium generates not only energy, but also a temperature that rises to a million degrees. Hydrogen isotopes combine into 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 3000 atomic bombs in Hiroshima. Both in the USA and former USSR you can count 40 thousand bombs of various capacities - nuclear and hydrogen.

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

Consequences of the explosion

The result of the explosion of the hydrogen bomb 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 transparency of the air. Large fiery hurricanes can form that do not calm down for several hours. And yet, the secondary and most dangerous consequence that the most powerful thermonuclear bomb can cause is radioactive radiation and contamination of the surrounding area for a long time.

Radioactive residue from the explosion of a hydrogen bomb

When the fireball explodes, it contains many very small radioactive particles that are trapped in atmospheric layer land and stay there for a long time. Upon contact with the ground, this fireball creates incandescent dust, consisting of particles of decay. First, a large one settles, and then a lighter one, which, with the help of the wind, spreads over hundreds of kilometers. These particles can be seen with the naked eye, for example, such dust can be seen on the snow. It is fatal if anyone is nearby. The smallest particles can stay in the atmosphere for many years and so “travel”, flying around the entire planet several times. Their radioactive emission will become weaker by the time they fall out in the form of precipitation.

In the event of a nuclear war using a hydrogen bomb, the contaminated particles will lead to the destruction of life within a radius of hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter. If a super bomb is used, then an area of several thousand kilometers will be contaminated, which will make the earth completely uninhabitable. It turns out that the most powerful bomb in the world created by man is capable of destroying entire continents.

Thermonuclear bomb "Kuzkin's mother". Creation

The AN 602 bomb received several names - "Tsar Bomba" and "Kuzkin's Mother". It was developed in the Soviet Union in 1954-1961. It had the most powerful explosive device for the entire existence of mankind. Work on its creation was carried out for several years in a highly classified laboratory called Arzamas-16. A 100-megaton hydrogen bomb is 10,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

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

The explosion of the "Tsar bomb" - to be or not to be?

In the summer of 1961, scientists decided to test and observe the explosion. The most powerful bomb in the world was supposed to explode at a test site located in the very north of Russia. The huge area of the polygon occupies the entire territory of the island of Novaya Zemlya. The scale of the defeat was to be 1000 kilometers. The explosion could have left such industrial centers as Vorkuta, Dudinka and Norilsk infected. Scientists, having comprehended the scale of the disaster, took up their heads 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 also failed to carry out an explosion on the icy continent, since the territory is considered international and it is simply unrealistic to obtain permission for such tests. 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 up to 67 kilometers, and the shock wave circled the planet three times. By the way, in the museum "Arzamas-16", in the city of Sarov, you can watch a newsreel of the explosion on an excursion, although they say that this spectacle is not for the faint of heart.

The destructive power of which, in the event of an explosion, 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 releasing and shackling nuclear energy. This process must be controlled. The released energy is converted into electricity. An atomic bomb causes a chain reaction that is completely uncontrollable, and the huge amount of energy released 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 is the most powerful atomic bomb on the planet, we will learn more about everything. Hydrogen and atomic bombs belong to the nuclear power industry. If you combine two pieces of uranium, but each will have a mass below the critical mass, then this "union" will greatly exceed the critical mass. Each neutron participates in a chain reaction, because it splits the nucleus and releases 2-3 more 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 a huge amount of energy, but also become sources of the strongest 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 vacuum bomb

It is believed that a vacuum bomb, created using the latest technology, can compete with a nuclear one. The fact is that instead of TNT, a gas substance is used here, which is several tens of times more powerful. The high-yield aerial bomb is the most powerful non-nuclear vacuum bomb in the world. It can destroy the enemy, but at the same time houses and equipment will not be damaged, and there will be no decay products.

The difference between an American vacuum bomb and a Russian one

The differences are that the latter can destroy the enemy, even in the bunker, with the help of an appropriate warhead. During the explosion in the air, the warhead falls and hits the ground hard, burrowing to a depth of 30 meters. After the explosion, a cloud is formed, which, increasing in size, can penetrate shelters and explode there. American warheads, on the other hand, are filled with ordinary TNT, which is why they destroy buildings. Vacuum bomb destroys a certain 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

The hydrogen bomb is another terrible nuclear weapon. The combination of uranium and plutonium generates not only energy, but also a temperature that rises to a million degrees. Hydrogen isotopes combine into 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 3000 atomic bombs in Hiroshima. Both in the USA and in the former USSR, one can count 40,000 bombs of various capacities - nuclear and hydrogen.

Consequences of the explosion

Radioactive residue from the explosion of a hydrogen bomb

During the explosion, the fireball contains many very small radioactive particles that are trapped 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 particles of decay. First, a large one settles, and then a lighter one, which, with the help of the wind, spreads over hundreds of kilometers. These particles can be seen with the naked eye, for example, such dust can be seen on the snow. It is fatal if anyone is nearby. The smallest particles can stay in the atmosphere for many years and so “travel”, flying around the entire planet several times. Their radioactive emission will become weaker by the time they fall out in the form of precipitation.

The explosion of the "Tsar bomb" - to be or not to be?

Ivy Mike - First atmospheric test of a hydrogen bomb by the United States at Enewetak Atoll on November 1, 1952.

65 years ago, the Soviet Union exploded its first thermonuclear bomb. How is this weapon arranged, what can it do and what can it not? On August 12, 1953, the first “practical” thermonuclear bomb was detonated in the USSR. We will talk about the history of its creation and see if it is true that such ammunition almost does not pollute the environment, but can destroy the world.

The idea of a thermonuclear weapon, where the nuclei of atoms merge rather than split, as in the atomic bomb, appeared no later than 1941. It came to the minds of the physicists Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller. Around the same time, they became involved in the Manhattan Project and helped create the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It turned out to be much more difficult to design a thermonuclear weapon.

You can roughly understand how much more complicated a thermonuclear bomb is than an atomic one by the fact that operating nuclear power plants have long been commonplace, and working and practical thermonuclear power plants are still science fiction.

To atomic nuclei merged with each other, they must be heated to millions of degrees. The scheme of the device that would allow this to be done was patented by the Americans in 1946 (the project was unofficially called Super), but they remembered it only three years later, when a nuclear bomb was successfully tested in the USSR.

President of the U.S.A Harry Truman declared that the Soviet breakthrough must be answered with "the so-called hydrogen or superbomb."

By 1951, the Americans had assembled the device and tested it under the code name "George". The design was a torus - in other words, a donut - with heavy isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium. They were chosen because such nuclei are easier to merge than ordinary hydrogen nuclei. The fuse was a nuclear bomb. The explosion compressed deuterium and tritium, they merged, gave a stream of fast neutrons and ignited the uranium lining. In an ordinary atomic bomb, it does not fission: there are only slow neutrons that cannot make a stable isotope of uranium fission. Although the energy of nuclear fusion accounted for about 10% of the total energy of the George explosion, the "ignition" of uranium-238 made it possible to raise the explosion power twice as high as usual, to 225 kilotons.

Due to the additional uranium, the explosion turned out to be twice as powerful as with a conventional atomic bomb. But on thermonuclear fusion accounted for only 10% of the released energy: tests showed that hydrogen nuclei are not compressed strongly enough.

Then the mathematician Stanislav Ulam proposed a different approach - a two-stage nuclear fuse. His idea was to place a plutonium rod in the "hydrogen" zone of the device. The explosion of the first fuse "ignited" plutonium, two shock waves and two streams of X-rays collided - the pressure and temperature jumped enough to start thermonuclear fusion. The new device was tested on Eniwetok Atoll in pacific ocean in 1952 - the explosive power of the bomb was already ten megatons of TNT.

However, this device was also unsuitable for use as a military weapon.

In order for hydrogen nuclei to merge, the distance between them must be minimal, so deuterium and tritium were cooled to liquid state, almost to absolute zero. This required a huge cryogenic facility. The second thermonuclear device, in fact an enlarged modification of the George, weighed 70 tons - you can’t drop this from an airplane.

The USSR began to develop a thermonuclear bomb later: the first scheme was proposed by Soviet developers only in 1949. It was supposed to use lithium deuteride. It's metal solid, it does not need to be liquefied, and therefore a bulky refrigerator, as in the American version, was no longer required. No less important is the fact that lithium-6, when bombarded with neutrons from the explosion, gave helium and tritium, which further simplifies the further fusion of nuclei.

The RDS-6s bomb was ready in 1953. Unlike American and modern thermonuclear devices, there was no plutonium rod in it. Such a scheme is known as a "puff": layers of lithium deuteride were interspersed with uranium. On August 12, RDS-6s was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site.

The power of the explosion was 400 kilotons of TNT - 25 times less than in the second attempt by the Americans. But the RDS-6s could be dropped from the air. The same bomb was going to be used on intercontinental ballistic missiles. And already in 1955, the USSR improved its thermonuclear brainchild, equipping it with a plutonium rod.

Today, almost all thermonuclear devices - apparently even North Korean ones - are somewhere between the early Soviet and American models. They all use lithium deuteride as fuel and ignite it with a two-stage nuclear detonator.

As is known from leaks, even the most modern American W88 thermonuclear warhead is similar to the RDS-6c: layers of lithium deuteride are interspersed with uranium.

The difference is that modern thermonuclear munitions are not multi-megaton monsters like the Tsar Bomba, but systems with a capacity of hundreds of kilotons, like the RDS-6s. No one has megaton warheads in their arsenals, since militarily a dozen less powerful warheads are more valuable than one strong one: this allows you to hit more targets.

Technicians work with the American W80 thermonuclear warhead

What a thermonuclear bomb can't

Hydrogen is an extremely common element, and there is enough of it in the Earth's atmosphere.

At one time it was said that a sufficiently powerful thermonuclear explosion could start a chain reaction and all the air on our planet would burn out. But this is a myth.

Not only gaseous, but also liquid hydrogen is not dense enough to start thermonuclear fusion. It needs to be compressed and heated nuclear explosion, preferably c different parties, as it is done with a two-stage fuse. There are no such conditions in the atmosphere, so self-sustaining nuclear fusion reactions are impossible there.

This is not the only misconception about thermonuclear weapons. It is often said that an explosion is “cleaner” than a nuclear explosion: they say that when hydrogen nuclei merge, “fragments” - dangerous short-lived nuclei of atoms that give radioactive contamination - produce less than when fissioning uranium nuclei.

This misconception is based on the fact that during a thermonuclear explosion, most of the energy is allegedly released due to the fusion of nuclei. It is not true. Yes, the "Tsar Bomba" was like that, but only because its uranium "shirt" for testing was replaced with lead. Modern two-stage fuses lead to significant radioactive contamination.

The zone of possible total defeat by the "Tsar Bomba", plotted on a map of Paris. The red circle is the zone of complete destruction (radius 35 km). The yellow circle is the size of the fireball (radius 3.5 km).

True, there is still a grain of truth in the myth of the "clean" bomb. Take the best American thermonuclear warhead W88. When it exploded optimal height above the city, the area of severe destruction will practically coincide with the zone of radioactive damage, dangerous to life. There will be vanishingly few deaths from radiation sickness: people will die from the explosion itself, and not from radiation.

Another myth says that thermonuclear weapons are capable of destroying the entire human civilization, and even life on Earth. This is also practically impossible. The energy of the explosion is distributed in three dimensions, therefore, with an increase in the power of the ammunition by a thousand times, the radius of the damaging effect grows only ten times - a megaton warhead has a radius of destruction only ten times greater than a tactical, kiloton one.

66 million years ago, an asteroid impact caused the extinction of most land animals and plants. The impact power was about 100 million megatons - this is 10 thousand times more than the total power of all the thermonuclear arsenals of the Earth. 790 thousand years ago, an asteroid collided with the planet, the impact was a million megatons, but there were no traces of at least moderate extinction (including our genus Homo) after that. Both life in general and a person are much stronger than they seem.

The truth about thermonuclear weapons is not as popular as the myths. Today it is like this: thermonuclear arsenals of compact medium-yield warheads provide a delicate strategic balance, because of which no one can freely iron other countries of the world. atomic weapons. The fear of a thermonuclear response is more than enough of a deterrent.