What does a nuclear bomb look like. Nuclear explosions
"I became Death, the destroyer of worlds." Robert Oppenheimer
General Thomas Farrell: “The effect that the explosion produced on me can be called magnificent, amazing and at the same time terrifying. Mankind has never created the appearance of such an incredible and terrifying force. "
The brilliant physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who is also the “father of the atomic bomb,” was born in New York in 1903 into a family of wealthy and educated Jews. During World War II, he led the development of American nuclear scientists to create the first atomic bomb in human history.
Challenge Name: Trinity
Date: July 16, 1945
Location: Alamogordo, New Mexico training ground.
It was the test of the world's first atomic bomb. A giant violet-green-orange-orange ball of fire shot up into the sky on a 1.6-kilometer-long site. The earth shuddered from the explosion, a white column of smoke rose to the sky and began to expand gradually, taking on an altitude of about 11 kilometers the awesome shape of a mushroom. The first nuclear explosion hit the military and scientists. Robert Oppenheimer remembered the lines from the Indian epic poem Bhagavad Gita: "I will become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
Challenge Name: Baker
Date: July 24, 1946
Location: Bikini Atoll Lagoon
Explosion Type: Underwater, depth 27.5 meters
Power: 23 kilotons.
The purpose of the tests was to study the effects of nuclear weapons on naval vessels and their personnel. 71 ships were turned into floating targets. It was the 5th test of nuclear weapons.
The bomb was placed in a waterproof hull and lowered from the LSM-60. 8 target ships were sunk, among them: LSM-60, Saratoga, Nagato, Arkansas, Pilotfish, Apogon submarines, ARDC-13 dry dock, YO-160 barge. Eight more ships were badly damaged. The explosion lifted several million tons of water into the air.
Challenge Name: Castle Bravo
Date: March 1, 1954
Location: Bikini Atoll
Explosion Type: Surface
Power: 15 megatons.
The explosion of a hydrogen bomb. Castle Bravo was the most powerful explosion of all trials ever conducted by the United States. The power of the explosion was much more than the initial forecasts of 4-6 megatons. The crater from the explosion turned out to be 2 km in diameter and 75 m deep. In 1 minute, the mushroom cloud reached a height of 15 km. 8 minutes after the explosion, the mushroom reached a maximum size of 20 km in diameter. The Castle Bravo test caused the largest radioactive contamination in the United States and exposure of local residents.
Challenge Name: Castle Romeo
Date: March 26, 1954
Location: on a barge in Bravo Crater, Bikini Atoll
Explosion Type: Surface
Power: 11 megatons.
The power of the explosion was 3 times greater than the original forecasts. Romeo was the first test performed on a barge. The fact is that such nuclear explosions left large funnels in the atoll, and the test program would destroy all the islands.
Challenge Name: AZTEC
Date: April 27, 1962
Location: Christmas Island
Power: 410 kilotons.
These tests were conducted from 1962 to 1963 in the United States.
Challenge Name: Chama
Date: October 18, 1962
Location: Johnston Island
Power: 1.59 megatons
Part of the Dominic project is a series of nuclear weapon tests consisting of 105 explosions.
Challenge Name: Truckee
Date: June 9, 1962
Location: Christmas Island
Power: more than 210 kilotons
Part of the Dominic project is a series of nuclear weapon tests consisting of 105 explosions.
Challenge Name: Dog
Date: 1951
Challenge Name: Annie
Date: March 17, 1953
Location: Nevada Nuclear Test Site
Power: 16 kilotons
Name of test: "Unicorn" (Fr. Licorne)
Date: July 3, 1970
Location: Atoll in French Polynesia
Power: 914 kilotons
The largest thermonuclear explosion in France.
Challenge Name: Oak
Date: June 28, 1958
Power: 8.9 megatons
Challenge Name: Mike
Date: October 31, 1952
Location: Elugelab Island ("Flora"), Enevate Atoll
Power: 10.4 megatons
The device, blown up during the test of Mike and called the “sausage”, was the first real “hydrogen” megaton-class bomb. The mushroom cloud reached a height of 41 km with a diameter of 96 km. Mike's power was greater than the power of all dropped bombs during World War II.
Challenge Name: Grable
Date: May 25, 1953
Location: Nevada Nuclear Test Site
Power: 15 kilotons
As part of Operation Upshot Nothol, a series of 11 nuclear explosions carried out by the United States in 1953.
Challenge Name: George
Date: 1951
Location: Nevada Nuclear Test Site
Challenge Name: Priscilla
Date: 1957
Location: Nevada Nuclear Test Site
Power: 37 kilotons
As part of the Plumbbob test series in May - October 1957.
Another photograph of the Castle Romeo nuclear explosion, which we wrote about above:
Copies of the first atomic bombs “Little” (Little Boy) with a charge mass of 16 kilotons and “Fat Man” (Fat Man) with a charge mass of 21 kilotons. It was the "Kid" who was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and the "Fat Man" on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945:
Challenge Name: Umbrella
Date: June 8, 1958
Location: Enivetok Lagoon in the Pacific
Power: 8 kilotons
An underwater nuclear explosion was carried out during Operation Hardtack. Discarded ships were used as targets.
Challenge Name: Seminole
Date: June 6, 1956
Location: Enivetok Lagoon in the Pacific
Power: 13.7 kilotons
Challenge Name: YESO
Date: June 10, 1962
Location: Christmas Island
Power: 3 megatons
Challenge Name: Rhéa
Date: June 14, 1971
Location: French Polynesia
Power: 1 megaton
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima (left, the atomic bomb "Kid", August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (right, the atomic bomb "Fat Man", August 9, 1945) - the only example in the history of mankind of the combat use of nuclear weapons. The total death toll ranged from 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and from 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki.
Challenge Name: Annie
Date: March 17, 1953
Location: Nevada Nuclear Test Site
Power: 16 kilotons
As part of Operation Upshot Nothol, a series of 11 nuclear explosions carried out by the United States in 1953. A series of images showing the destruction of a house located 1 km from the explosion:
AN602 (aka Tsar Bomb and Kuzkina Mother) is a thermonuclear aerial bomb developed in the USSR in 1954-1961 by a group of nuclear physicists led by academician I.V. Kurchatov. The most powerful explosive device in the history of mankind. different data had a capacity of 57 to 58.6 megatons:
Challenge Name: Tsar bomb
Date: October 30, 1961
Location: Novaya Zemlya training ground
Power: Over 50 Megatons
(Photo from the Minatom archive):
Place at the test site in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where on July 16, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb Trinity (Trinity) was detonated:
65 years ago, the first air nuclear explosion was carried out at the Semipalatinsk test site: the RDS-3 bomb was dropped from a Tu-4 aircraft. The site recalls the most famous nuclear explosions in the history of mankind. October 18, 2016 13:38
RDS-3. The first in the USSR air nuclear explosion
The Soviet atomic bomb of the implosive type RDS-3 was developed as an air bomb for heavy long-range Tu-4 bombers and medium-sized Tu-16s. The first air and third nuclear test in the USSR took place at the Semipalatinsk test site.
On October 18, 1951, a Tu-4 bomber dropped a bomb with its detonation at an altitude of 380 meters. Energy release amounted to 42 kilotons.
The bombing was carried out by navigator-scorer captain B.D. Davydov. In his memoirs, he said that during the explosion, the arrows of aerodynamic instruments, altimeters, speed indicators began to rotate. Dust appeared on the plane, although a thorough cleaning of the cabins was carried out before this flight. “The train from the explosion quickly rose to the flight altitude and a mushroom began to form and grow. The colors of the cloud were the most diverse. It’s hard to convey the state that I possessed after the reset. The whole world, everything around it was perceived in a different way - as if I had seen it all again, ”the navigator recalled.
After landing, the crew left with parachutes and oxygen masks on. The pilots and the aircraft were examined for radiation contamination, after which it was concluded that the Tu-4 aircraft, equipped with a bomber installation and equipped with a bomb bay heating system and a set of additional special equipment, ensures safe and reliable operation of the RDS-3 product and targeted bombing.
The results of a successful atomic bomb air test became the basis for decisions on equipping the Air Force with nuclear weapons: mass production of RDS-3 atomic bombs and Tu-4 carrier aircraft was organized.
American "little thing." First atomic bomb
The first atomic bomb in the world was the American “Gadget” of the Trinity project. She was tested a few weeks before the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The "Little Things" bombing occurred in the state of New Mexico, at the Alamogordo training ground, also known as the "White Sands".
The bomb was installed in a 30-meter watchtower. The bunkers were located at a distance of 9000 meters so that you could clearly observe the explosion. On the night of July 16, 1945, "Little thing" was blown up. As a result of the explosion, a shock wave swept through the desert, destroying the tower in chips and forming a giant nuclear mushroom 12,000 meters high. The flash from the explosion was brighter than ten suns. She has been seen in all parts of New Mexico, as well as in parts of Arizona, Texas, and Mexico.
Explosion of "Things" in 0.016 seconds after detonation. The size of the plasma ball is about 200 meters.
Immediately after the explosion, the landfill was closed, and since 1965 it was declared a national historical monument.
Despite the fact that hundreds of leading physicists from around the world worked in the framework of the project, before the bomb test, none of them knew exactly what would happen at the training ground. Some believed that the charge would not work, others predicted a monstrous force explosion that would almost destroy the entire state of New Mexico, while others were afraid that the atomic bomb would burn all the oxygen on the planet. The closest to the truth was Isidor Rabi, according to whose calculations, the power of the bomb explosion was to be 18 kilotons in TNT equivalent. In fact, its capacity was 21 kilotons.
“Baby” and “Fat Man”. Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are symbols of the destructive power of nuclear weapons. Bombs on Japanese cities with civilians were dropped by American bombers.
After the explosion on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima, the "Baby" bomb (weighing four tons and a power of up to 20 kilotons of TNT) killed about 140 thousand people.
The bomb "Baby" dropped on Hiroshima
At about 8 a.m., two B-29 bombers appeared over Hiroshima. An alarm was given, but due to the fact that there were few aircraft, everyone thought it was intelligence. And a few minutes later there was an explosion that turned the city into ruins.
Another bomb was fired in Nagasaki - The Fat Man. This explosion occurred three days after the first and claimed the lives of more than 80 thousand people.
The "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki
To date, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains the only case of the use of nuclear weapons in the history of mankind.
Baker. The first underwater nuclear explosion
On July 25, 1946, in the lagoon of Bikini Atoll, the Americans tested the Baker, the first underwater explosion, at a depth of 28 meters.
The purpose of the operation Crossroads, in which they fired, was to study the effect of atomic weapons on ships. In order to target ships could enter the harbor, 100 tons of dynamite were used to destroy coral ledges at the entrance to the Bikini lagoon. In total, 95 ships were concentrated there: obsolete battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, etc. 200 pigs, 60 guinea pigs, 204 goats, 5,000 rats, 200 mice and grains containing insects were loaded onto some vessels as a “crew” to study the effect on genetics.
Bang in the lagoon of Bikini Atoll
At first, the Able bomb dropped from an airplane was blown up in the air. Her explosion flooded five ships and severely damaged fourteen. The Baker’s underwater explosion almost did not produce a dazzling flash, but tossed two million tons of sea water and sand up 150 meters. An underwater blast wave destroyed and flooded 10 ships. Rising to 305 meters in height, a wave threw huge ships like toys, and landing ships threw ashore. The "Baker" gave an unprecedentedly strong infection, and the surviving, but "fading" target ships flooded right there.
“Russia does it herself”, “Motherland gives Stalin” - this is how the name of the first Russian atomic bomb was deciphered. The official designation RDS-1 was - "Jet engine" C "".
The test of the first Russian atomic bomb RDS-1 took place on August 29, 1949, 170 km west of the city of Semipalatinsk at test site No. 2. A funnel with a diameter of three meters and a depth of 1.5 meters formed by a melted glass-like substance formed on the site of the tower with the bomb.
It is known that a building made of reinforced concrete structures located 25 meters from the tower partially collapsed during the explosion. Of the 1538 experimental animals (dogs, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, rats), 345 died as a result of the bombing. The T-34 tank and field artillery, which were within a radius of 500-550 meters from the epicenter of the explosion, received minor injuries. Installed at a distance of a kilometer from the epicenter and further every 10 meters, 10 Pobeda cars burned down. Residential switchboard and log houses of urban type were completely destroyed in a radius of five km. The main damage was not received from the explosion itself, but from the shock wave.
Test RDS-1 was successful. A documentary about the explosion and consequences, mounted in complete secrecy, was shown to Stalin and was inaccessible for 45 years. Now the video of the explosion of the first Soviet atomic bomb is in the public domain.
Atomic "Shrimp"
A 100-kilometer nuclear mushroom rose above the Pacific Ocean on March 1, 1954. Once again, the US tested the atomic bomb on the Bikini Atoll. It was assumed that the power of the TX-21 will be about six megatons. But the Shrimp was underestimated, and the explosion power was 15 megatons, which is a thousand times more than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Explosion TX-21 "Shrimp"
Residents of the islands closest to the explosion site were evacuated only after two days. By this time, many began to have thyroid disease. As a result of tests, 840 inhabitants of the atoll died of cancer, 7000 people were evacuated, more than 1.5 thousand residents received the status of victims of the tests. Atoll islands affected by radiation were uninhabited until 2010. And now no one is in a hurry to return there.
From Totsk to Nevada. Explosions in military exercises
The explosion at the Totsky training ground
In 1954, the Soviet command decided to check the interaction of troops in a nuclear bombardment. The total number of servicemen participating in the training at the Totsk training ground reached 45,000. The task of the exercises was to develop the capabilities of breaking through the enemy’s defense using nuclear weapons.
During the explosion of a bomb with a capacity of 40 kilotons, the troops were located in special shelters at a distance of five kilometers from the explosion. Then several units went on the offensive through the area near the epicenter. About 500 people passed through the epicentral zone using equipment.
The exercises were often criticized for the fact that thousands of soldiers and local residents were exposed to radiation, evacuated either far enough away or received a dose of radiation after the maneuvers.
Also, in September 1956, during the Semipalatinsk exercises, 272 people in individual protective equipment were landed in the area of \u200b\u200bthe explosion.
More similar tests were not conducted in the USSR, but in the United States exercises with the use of nuclear weapons were carried out before and after the Totsky maneuvers. Units of the American army more than once passed through the site of the epicenter of an atomic explosion in the desert of Nevada. On the newsreel of the Desert Rock exercises, it is clear that the soldiers are in open trenches, and after passing the shock wave they run out of the trenches and go on the attack without protective equipment. Tourists even came to the training ground to look at the tests of miracle weapons.
After the first nuclear test on July 15, 1945, more than 2051 other nuclear weapons tests around the world were recorded.
No other force personifies such an absolute destructive action as nuclear weapons. And this type of weapon quickly becomes even more powerful within decades after the first test.
The nuclear bomb test in 1945 had a capacity of 20 kilotons, that is, the bomb had an explosive force of 20,000 tons of TNT. For 20 years, the United States and the USSR tested nuclear weapons with a total mass of more than 10 megatons, or 10 million tons of TNT. For scale, it is at least 500 times stronger than the first atomic bomb. In order to bring the size of the largest nuclear explosions in history to scale, data were derived using Nukemap Alex Wellerstein, a device for visualizing the terrifying effects of a nuclear explosion in the real world.
In the above maps, the first ring of the explosion is a ball of fire, followed by the radius of radiation. In the pink radius, almost all the destruction of buildings and with a fatal outcome of 100% is displayed. In a gray radius, stronger buildings will withstand the explosion. In the orange radius, people will suffer third-degree burns, and combustible materials will catch fire, resulting in possible fire storms.
The largest nuclear explosions
Soviet tests 158 and 168
On August 25 and September 19, 1962, less than a month from each other, nuclear tests were conducted in the USSR over the Novaya Zemlya region of Russia, on an archipelago in northern Russia near the Arctic Ocean.
No test videos or photos were left, but both tests included the use of 10 megaton atomic bombs. These explosions would burn everything within 1.77 square miles at the epicenter, causing third-degree burns to victims in an area of \u200b\u200b1,090 square miles.
Ivy mike
On November 1, 1952, the USA was tested by Ivy Mike over the Marshall Islands. Ivy Mike is the world's first hydrogen bomb and had a capacity of 10.4 megatons, which is 700 times stronger than the first atomic bomb.
The explosion of Ivy Mike was so powerful that the island of Elugelab evaporated where it was blown up, resulting in its place a 164-foot deep crater.
Castle romeo
Romeo was the second nuclear explosion in a series of tests conducted by the United States in 1954. All explosions were carried out on Bikini Atoll. Romeo was the third most powerful test of the series and had a capacity of about 11 megatons.
Romeo was the first to be tested on a barge in open waters, not on a reef, as the US quickly ran out of islands where nuclear weapons could be tested. The blast will burn everything within 1.91 square miles.
Soviet Test 123
On October 23, 1961, the Soviet Union conducted nuclear test No. 123 over Novaya Zemlya. Test 123 was a 12.5 megaton nuclear bomb. A bomb of this size will burn everything within 2.11 square miles, causing third-degree burns to people on an area of \u200b\u200b1309 square miles. This test also left no records.
Castle yankee
Castle Yankee, the second most powerful of a series of tests, was carried out on May 4, 1954. The bomb had a capacity of 13.5 megatons. Four days later, its decay fallout reached Mexico City, not a distance of about 7,100 miles.
Castle bravo
Castle Bravo was held February 28, 1954, was the first of a series of Castle tests and the largest nuclear explosion in the United States of all time.
Bravo was originally speculated as a 6 megaton explosion. Instead, the bomb produced a 15 megaton explosion. His mushroom reached 114,000 feet in the air.
The miscalculation of the US military had consequences in the amount of exposure to about 665 residents of the Marshall Islands and the death from radiation exposure of a Japanese fisherman who was 80 miles from the site of the explosion.
Soviet tests 173, 174 and 147
From August 5 to September 27, 1962, the USSR conducted a series of nuclear tests over Novaya Zemlya. Test 173, 174, 147 and all stand out as the fifth, fourth, and third strongest nuclear explosions in history.
All three explosions carried out had a power of 20 Megatons, or about 1000 times stronger than the Trinity nuclear bomb. A bomb of this force will blow everything within its three square miles.
Test 219, Soviet Union
On December 24, 1962, the USSR conducted test No. 219, with a capacity of 24.2 megatons above Novaya Zemlya. A bomb of this strength can burn everything within 3.58 square miles, causing third degree burns in an area of \u200b\u200bup to 2250 square miles.
Tsar bomb
On October 30, 1961, the USSR blew up the largest nuclear weapon ever tested and created the largest man-made explosion in history. The explosion, which is 3,000 times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
A flash of light from the explosion was visible at a distance of 620 miles.
The Tsar bomb ultimately had a power between 50 and 58 megatons, twice the size of the second largest nuclear explosion.
A bomb of this size will create a fireball of 6.4 square miles and will be able to inflict third degree burns within 4080 square miles of the epicenter of the bomb.
First atomic bomb
The first atomic explosion was the size of the King Bomb, and still the explosion is considered to be of almost unimaginable size.
According to NukeMap, this weapon with a capacity of 20 kilotons produces a fireball with a radius of 260 m, about 5 football fields. It is estimated that the bomb will carry deadly radiation measuring 7 miles wide and will burn third degree burns over a distance of more than 12 miles. When using such a bomb in lower Manhattan, more than 150,000 people will be killed and the effects of radioactive fallout will extend to central Connecticut, according to NukeMap calculations.
The first atomic bomb was tiny by the standards of nuclear weapons. But its destructiveness is still very great for perception.