Tsar bomb 100 megatons. Tsar Bomba or how the Soviet Union showed Kuzka’s mother to the world

October 30, 1961 is a significant date in the history of the Cold War. On this day, the Soviet Union tested the most powerful thermonuclear bomb in history, which later received the unofficial name “Tsar Bomba”.

The AN602 bomb (or “product 602”), detonated over the test site on Novaya Zemlya, was intended by the Soviet leadership to clearly show the West that the days of its superiority in nuclear weapons were in the past. The power of the thermonuclear device was monstrous - it was 57 megatons (according to other sources 58) in TNT equivalent.

In addition to propaganda purposes, the tests also had a completely practical significance: Soviet scientists needed to experimentally test their theoretical calculations related to the design of thermonuclear ammunition and the calculation of the power of their explosion. As a result of this “experiment,” it was proven that the power of thermonuclear weapons is unlimited.

Initially, they wanted to increase the power of the ammunition to 100 megatons, but then physicists had concerns about excessive radioactive contamination that such a charge could lead to. Therefore, it was decided to reduce the power of the bomb by half. Khrushchev himself later joked that they planned to explode 100 megatons, but were afraid for the windows in Moscow.

Almost immediately after the tests, AN602 received another unofficial name - “Kuzka’s Mother”, in honor of catchphrase Secretary General Khrushchev, which he threw from the UN rostrum. Then Nikita Sergeevich promised to “bury imperialism” and show the United States “Kuzka’s mother.” Soon it was clearly demonstrated to the Americans on Novaya Zemlya.

The best domestic minds worked on the creation of the Soviet Tsar Bomba: Trutnev, Sakharov, Babaev, Adamsky, Smirnov. The project was led by the famous Kurchatov, its implementation began in 1954.

History of creation

The atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki opened a new era in the history of mankind and at the same time they gave rise to a period of intense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, which entered the history books under the name of the Cold War. From that moment to this day, the power and status of any state is determined not only by the size of its armed forces and the level of economic development, but also by the presence of nuclear weapons.

The United States did not have a monopoly on the nuclear bomb for long. Thanks to the brilliant work of intelligence, by 1949 the Soviet Union managed to create its first nuclear charge and conduct its successful tests.

In 1953 soviet army received the first aviation nuclear bomb RDS-3, which theoretically could be used to strike US territory.

However, in the early 60s main problem The USSR was not in the number of nuclear warheads, but in the means of delivering nuclear weapons. Those that were available could not be guaranteed to provide a sufficiently powerful retaliatory strike against the adversary. At that time, rocket technology was just taking its first steps, and the main means of delivering nuclear weapons was strategic aviation. The Americans were significantly ahead of the USSR in this area. In addition to a significant fleet strategic bombers, the USA also had a large number military bases near the Soviet borders where they could station their aircraft. The USSR did not have anything like this, so the bet was placed on the superiority of Soviet nuclear weapons over their American counterparts. Roughly speaking, the military took the route of increasing the power of the bombs, hoping that if anything reached enemy territory, it would fly in earnest. Even one Soviet bomber breaking through the air defense cordons could destroy a large American city or industrial area.

Around the mid-50s, work began on the creation of thermonuclear weapons in the USA and USSR. At the end of 1952, the Americans successfully tested the first hydrogen bomb, and eight months later the Soviet Union acquired similar weapons. It should be noted that soviet bomb had a more advanced design and could be used in practice.

Thermo nuclear weapons fit perfectly into the Soviet concept of an “asymmetric retaliatory strike,” because its power was theoretically unlimited. At the end of the 50s, work began in the Soviet Union on several projects of thermonuclear ammunition of monstrous power, as well as means of their delivery. For example, in 1960, a resolution of the Council of Ministers was issued on the start of the development of the N-1 intercontinental missile with a take-off weight of 2.2 thousand tons and a thermonuclear warhead of 75 tons. It is difficult to accurately indicate its power; we can only say that the 50-megaton Tsar Bomba weighed 26.5 tons. Around the same time, Chelomei was developing the UR-500 missile with a 150-megaton warhead. However, all these projects were so expensive and technically complex that they remained on paper.

There is a legend that when a project missile complex Khrushchev saw the UR-500 and estimated its approximate cost; he asked the designer: “What are we going to build? Communism or silos for your missiles? After this, the program was discontinued.

We can also mention the project giant torpedo with a multi-megaton warhead, which was planned to be detonated off the coast of America, thereby causing a devastating tsunami. The author of this project was the future laureate Nobel Prize Academician Sakharov. However, this idea was also not realized.

The creation of such monstrous thermonuclear monsters required mandatory practical testing. Moreover, for testing a sample of similar power was needed. Scientists needed to test their theoretical calculations, and the military needed to try to use such ammunition in practice in order to understand how to cause probable enemy greatest damage.

Work on a super-powerful thermonuclear device began in the mid-50s. This project was carried out by specialists from NII-1011 (Chelyabinsk-70), today it is RFNC-VNIITF. At the same time, OKB-156 was working on creating a carrier aircraft for such an unusual ammunition. Initially, the bomb weighed 40 tons, which was categorically rejected by aircraft manufacturers. In the end, nuclear scientists promised to reduce the weight of the product by half.

In 1958 political reasons project over powerful bomb was closed.

There is a legend that the Soviet “Kuzkina Mother” was developed in record time short terms(112 days). This is not entirely true.

In 1960, the international situation deteriorated again and the Soviet leadership decided to resume the superbomb program. This project was transferred to KB-11 and the final part of the creation of the Tsar Bomba actually took 112 days. However, the AN602 product was based on developments made in the period from 1954 to 1958 at NII-1011. Although, it should be noted that at the completion stage many significant changes were made to the ammunition.

The development of a carrier aircraft for the AN602 was also a very difficult task. The designers of the Tupolev Design Bureau had to make serious changes to the power circuit of the Tu-95 aircraft, remodel its cargo compartment, and also change the suspension and ammunition release devices. The bomber designed for this mission was named Tu-95B. After the project was suspended, it was transported to a military airfield in Uzin, where it was used as a training tool.

The Tsar Bomba was intended to have a three-stage design. A nuclear charge with a yield of 1.5 megatons was used as the first stage. Its main function was to launch the second stage thermonuclear reaction, the power of which was 50 megatons. She, in turn, initiated the detonation of the third 50-megaton stage. Thus, a munition with a yield of 101.5 megatons was initially conceived.

Already during the implementation of the project, it was decided to abandon the third stage. The danger of radioactive contamination of territories outside the test site was too great, and they also did not want to cause too much damage to Novaya Zemlya, the future site of the Tsar Bomba explosion. So the bomb's power was reduced to 55 megatons, and lead plates were placed instead of the third stage.

To protect the aircraft crew from exposure damaging factors explosion, AN602 was equipped with three parachutes at once. The area of ​​the main parachute was more than 1.6 thousand square meters. meters. He should have allowed the bomber, after completing its mission, to move to a safe distance from the explosion site. A special reflective coating was applied to the fuselage of the aircraft.

The Tsar Bomba itself had a characteristic streamlined teardrop shape with four stabilizers in the tail section. Its weight was 26.5 tons, its length was 8 meters, and its largest diameter was 2.1 meters.

On October 17, 1961, Nikita Khrushchev, during the opening of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, told the audience that the USSR had a thermonuclear bomb with a capacity of 100 megatons and was going to detonate a 50-megaton charge. After such a statement, nothing could stop the tests. The UN officially appealed to the Soviet leadership to abandon the explosion, but it was ignored.

AN602 tests and their results

The Tsar Bomba test was scheduled for October 30, 1961. On the morning of this day, a Tu-95V with an AN602 on board took off from the Olenya airfield, which Murmansk region, and headed for New Earth. The crew consisted of nine people, the bomber was accompanied by a Tu-16A laboratory aircraft.

About two hours later, the Tu-95 reached its intended point above the Dry Nose training ground. AN602 was dropped from a height of 10 thousand meters. The explosion occurred after 188 seconds, during which time the bomber managed to move 39 km away. The shock wave caught up with it at a distance of 115 km, causing strong vibration, although it did not cause much harm to the car.

The force of the Tsar Bomba explosion exceeded the expected one (51.5 Mt) and amounted to 58.5 Mt.

The duration of the flash was 65-70 seconds, the height of the “mushroom” exceeded 67 km, and the diameter of its cap was 95 km. The light radiation from the explosion could cause serious burns (third degree) at a distance of 100 kilometers.

The explosion caused a seismic wave that circled the planet three times. Thousands of witnesses stated that they felt a tangible blow, even being a thousand from its epicenter.

The sound wave reached Dikson Island (800 km). Some sources report that windows in buildings on the island were broken by the blast wave.

The severe ionization of the atmosphere generated by the explosion caused interference with radio communications within a radius of hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter. They lasted about an hour.

Radioactive contamination of the site was insignificant. Within a few hours, a group of testers landed on it and took the necessary measurements.

After the success of the test, the commander and navigator of the Tu-95V received the titles of Heroes, eight people from the bomb development team became Heroes of Socialist Labor, several dozen scientists and designers received Lenin Prizes.

By the way, immediately after the test, scientists proposed several projects for creating even more powerful thermonuclear ammunition (300, 500 Mt). However, the military spoke out categorically against such ideas. An exploded 50-megaton bomb had already burned out an area the size of Paris, so why make even more powerful devices? And the mass of such ammunition made their practical use almost impossible.

If we talk about the results of the tests on Novaya Zemlya, then the main one, of course, was propaganda. The USSR clearly showed all ill-wishers that it was better not to joke with it. Fifty megatons is a lot good way cool down too hot heads. Tests of AN602 very quickly brought results: literally a few months later in Moscow, an agreement was signed between the USA, USSR and Great Britain banning any tests of nuclear weapons on land, on water and in space. This international document is still being implemented today.

The explosion also had important practical significance. In essence, AN602 was a large test bench with the help of which Soviet scientists and designers tested their theoretical calculations. And there was no other way to do it. In addition, the Soviet military received invaluable information regarding the use of ammunition of such power. In fact, due to its significant dimensions, the Tsar Bomba was not very suitable for practical use.

It should also be understood that the Soviet Union was not developing super-powerful ammunition out of a good life. To be honest, the main element of the Soviet “asymmetric response” strategy, of course, was intimidation. The Tu-95 simply could not deliver AN602 to the United States: due to the significant mass of ammunition, it simply would not have reached the target. After improving domestic intercontinental missiles the need for super-powerful nuclear charges disappeared; it was much more profitable to deliver a dozen warheads with relatively small charges to enemy territory than one multi-megaton monster.

All more people on the planet believes that some kind of great catastrophe is being prepared in the USA. This is evidenced by large-scale preparations. One of the most probable causes disaster threatening America is the eruption of Yellowstone. Just now new information has emerged.

At some point we will learn that predictions regarding the size of the magma reservoir beneath this supervolcano have been grossly underestimated. Scientists from the University of Utah have just reported that the size of the magma reservoir beneath Yellowstone is twice as large as previously thought. Interestingly, the same thing was also found about two years ago, so the latest data shows that there is four times more magma than was thought just a decade ago.

Many people in the United States claim that their government understands what the situation in Yellowstone really looks like, but is hiding it so as not to cause panic. As if to contradict this, Utah scientists are diligently ensuring that the biggest threat is risk big earthquake, not eruptions. Really?

Geological data indicate that in national park eruptions occurred 2 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago, and in last time- 630 thousand years ago. Everything indicates that the supervolcano may begin erupting not today - tomorrow, and not in 20 thousand years, as American specialists from the US Geological Society want. However, modeling using computer technology sometimes shows that the next catastrophe may happen in 2075.

The exact patterns of these, however, depend on the complexity and regularity of the effects and specific events. It's hard to believe that the United States knows exactly when this great volcano will wake up, but given the fact that this is one of the most famous places in the world, one suspects that he is being closely watched. The question here seems to be: If clear evidence of this eruption has been recorded, shouldn't people be informed about it?

There is no doubt about the threats anarchy poses on US soil. Is it possible that FEMA is preparing for such a scenario? Of course yes. Most people live like sheep in a pasture, carelessly eating grass and not being interested in anything except the next day. These are the easiest to sacrifice because otherwise they become an obstacle.

If Yellowstone erupted, there would be enough volcanic material to cover the entire United States with a fifteen-centimeter layer of ash. Thousands of cubic kilometers of various gases, mainly sulfur compounds, would be released into the atmosphere. Perhaps this is a dream for environmentalists fighting the so-called global warming, since substances emitted into the stratosphere would obscure the earth, which would mean that the Sun would shine only through gaps, which would certainly lower the temperature in the world.

Such a scenario would also mean tragic changes on Earth. Blackout period and dropouts acid rain would cause the extinction of many species of plants and animals, and with a high probability the extermination of humanity. A situation like nuclear winter would lead to average temperature on Earth will be -25 degrees Celsius. Then we should expect the situation to normalize, because after previous volcanic eruptions everything also returned to normal.

As you can read in the British edition of Focus, governments of other countries are aware of the threats, and, apparently, send the best specialists to Yellowstone, who, however, can only confirm or deny the reality of this threat. Humanity can do nothing to protect itself from this. The only precautions that can be taken are creating shelters and collecting food and water.

Let's hope it all stays that way clean water wrong hypothesis. Otherwise, all the nuclear weapons in the world will not cause the same trouble as Yellowstone.
For those who are especially stubborn, I’ll explain that America, of course, will die in just a few hours, but in Russia there is almost nothing to hope for, within two weeks everything will be covered in ashes and we will die sooooo slowly

On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union exploded the most powerful bomb in the world - the Tsar Bomba. This 58 megaton hydrogen bomb was blown up at a test site located on Novaya Zemlya. After the explosion, Nikita Khrushchev liked to joke that the original plan was to detonate a 100-megaton bomb, but the charge was reduced “so as not to break all the glass in Moscow.”

"Tsar Bomba" AN602

Name

The name "Kuzka's Mother" appeared under the impression famous saying N. S. Khrushchev “We ​​will still show America Kuzka’s mother!” Officially, the AN602 bomb did not have a name. In correspondence, the designation “product B” was also used for RN202, and AN602 was subsequently called that way (GAU index - “product 602”). Currently, all this is sometimes a cause of confusion, since AN602 is mistakenly identified with RDS-37 or (more often) with RN202 (however, the latter identification is partly justified, since AN602 was a modification of RN202). Moreover, as a result, the AN602 retroactively acquired the “hybrid” designation RDS-202 (which neither it nor the RN202 ever carried). The product received the name “Tsar Bomba” as the most powerful and destructive weapon in history.

Development

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

It is worth noting that the above information about the start date of work is in partial contradiction with official history Institute (now it is the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics / RFNC-VNIIEF). According to it, the order to create the corresponding research institute in the system of the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR was signed only on April 5, 1955, and work at NII-1011 began a few months later. But in any case, only the final stage of development of AN602 (already in KB-11 - now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics / RFNC-VNIIEF) in the summer-autumn of 1961 (and by no means the entire project as a whole !) really took 112 days. However, AN602 was not simply a renamed RN202. The design of the bomb included a number of constructive changes- as a result, for example, its alignment noticeably changed. AN602 had a three-stage design: the first stage nuclear charge (calculated contribution to the explosion power was 1.5 megatons) launched a thermo nuclear reaction in the second stage (contribution to the explosion power - 50 megatons), and it, in turn, initiated the nuclear “Jekyll-Hyde reaction” (fission of nuclei in uranium-238 blocks under the influence of fast neutrons generated as a result of the thermonuclear fusion reaction) in the third stages (another 50 megatons of power), so that the total estimated power of AN602 was 101.5 megatons.

Test location on the map.

The original version of the bomb was rejected because it was extremely high level radioactive contamination, which it was supposed to cause - 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 yield of the explosion by almost half (to 51.5 megatons).
The first work on “topic 242” began immediately after negotiations between I.V. Kurchatov and A.N. Tupolev (took place in the fall of 1954), who appointed his deputy for weapons systems, A.V. Nadashkevich, as the head of the topic. The strength analysis carried out showed that the suspension of such a large concentrated load would require serious changes in the power circuit of the original aircraft, in the design of the bomb bay and in the suspension and release devices. In the first half of 1955, the dimensional and weight drawings of the AN602, as well as the layout drawing of its placement, were agreed upon. As expected, the mass of the bomb was 15% of the carrier's take-off mass, but its overall dimensions required the removal of the fuselage fuel tanks. Developed for the AN602 suspension, the new beam holder BD7-95-242 (BD-242) was similar in design to the BD-206, but significantly more load-bearing. It had three bomber castles Der5-6 with a carrying capacity of 9 tons each. The BD-242 was attached directly to the power longitudinal beams that edged the bomb bay. The problem of controlling the release of a bomb was also successfully solved - electrical automation ensured exclusively synchronous opening of all three locks (the need for this was dictated by security conditions).

On March 17, 1956, a joint resolution of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers No. 357-228ss was issued, according to which OKB-156 was to begin converting the Tu-95 into a carrier nuclear bombs high power. This work was carried out at the LII MAP (Zhukovsky) from May to September 1956. Then the Tu-95V was accepted by the customer and handed over for flight tests, which were carried out (including dropping a mock-up of the “super bomb”) under the leadership of Colonel S. M. Kulikov until 1959 and passed without any special comments. In October 1959, “Kuzka’s Mother” was delivered to the training ground by a Dnepropetrovsk crew.

Tests

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

Flash of the Tsar Bomba explosion

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

Mushroom after explosion

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

There is video footage of the aircraft carrying this bomb landing after the test; the plane was on fire; upon inspection after landing, it was clear that some of the protruding aluminum parts had melted and become deformed.

Test results

The explosion of AN602 was classified as a low air explosion of extremely high power. The results were impressive:

The fireball of the explosion reached a radius of approximately 4.6 kilometers. Theoretically, it could have grown to the surface of the earth, but this was prevented by the reflected shock wave, crushing and throwing the ball off the ground.

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

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

The tangible seismic wave resulting from the explosion circled three times globe.

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

The nuclear mushroom of the explosion rose to a height of 67 kilometers; the diameter of its two-tier “hat” reached (at the top tier) 95 kilometers

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

Consequences of the test

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

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

An extremely important scientific result was the experimental verification of the principles of calculation and design of multistage thermonuclear charges. It was experimentally proven that the maximum power of a thermonuclear charge, in principle, is not limited by anything. So, in the tested bomb, to increase the explosion power by another 50 megatons, it was enough to make the third stage of the bomb (which was the shell of the second stage) not from lead, but from uranium-238, as was standard. Replacing the shell material and reducing the explosion power were due only to the desire to reduce the amount of radioactive fallout to an acceptable level, and not to the desire to reduce the weight of the bomb, as is sometimes believed. However, the weight of AN602 did decrease from this, but only slightly - the uranium shell should have weighed about 2800 kg, the lead shell of the same volume - based on the lower density of lead - about 1700 kg. The lightening achieved in this case is slightly more than one ton, barely noticeable when total mass AN602 is no less than 24 tons (even if we take the most conservative estimate) and did not affect the situation with its transportation.

It cannot be argued that “the explosion was one of the cleanest atmospheric gases in history.” nuclear tests" - the first stage of the bomb was a uranium charge with a capacity of 1.5 megatons, which in itself ensured large number radioactive fallout. Nevertheless, it can be considered that for a nuclear explosive device of such power, AN602 was indeed quite clean - more than 97% of the explosion power was provided by the thermonuclear fusion reaction, which practically did not create radioactive contamination.
There is also a discussion about ways to politically apply the technology of creating super-powerful nuclear warheads served as the beginning of ideological differences between N. S. Khrushchev and A. D. Sakharov, since Nikita Sergeevich did not accept Andrei Dmitrievich’s project to place several dozen super-powerful nuclear warheads, with a capacity of 200 or even 500 megatons, along the American maritime boundaries, which made it possible to sober up neoconservative circles without being drawn into a ruinous arms race

Rumors and hoaxes related to AN602

The test results of AN602 became the subject of a number of other rumors and hoaxes. Thus, it was sometimes claimed that the power of the bomb explosion reached 120 megatons. This was probably due to the “overlay” of information about the excess of the actual power of the explosion over the calculated one by about 20% (in fact, by 14-17%) on the initial design power of the bomb (100 megatons, more precisely, 101.5 megatons). The newspaper Pravda added fuel to the fire of such rumors, on the pages of which it was officially stated that “She<АН602>- yesterday was the day of atomic weapons. Now even more powerful charges have been created.” In fact, more powerful thermonuclear munitions - e.g. combat unit for the UR-500 ICBM (GRAU index 8K82; the well-known Proton launch vehicle is its modification) with a capacity of 150 megatons, although actually developed, remained on the drawing boards.

IN different times Rumors also circulated that the power of the bomb was reduced by 2 times compared to the planned one, as scientists feared the occurrence of a self-sustaining thermonuclear reaction in the atmosphere. It is interesting that similar concerns (only about the possibility of a self-sustaining nuclear fission reaction occurring in the atmosphere) had already been expressed earlier - in preparation for testing the first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. Then these fears reached the point that one of the over-excited scientists was not only removed from the tests, but also sent to the care of doctors.
Science fiction writers and physicists also expressed fears (generated mainly by the science fiction of those years - this topic often appeared in the books of Alexander Kazantsev, for example, in his book “Phaetians” it was stated that in this way the hypothetical planet Phaethon perished, from which an asteroid belt remained), that the explosion could initiate a thermonuclear reaction in sea ​​water, containing some deuterium, and thus cause an explosion of the oceans that will split the planet into pieces.

Similar concerns, albeit in a humorous form, were expressed by the hero of science fiction writer Yuri Tupitsyn’s books, star pilot Klim Zhdan:
“Coming back to Earth, I always worry. Is she there? Didn’t scientists, carried away by yet another promising experiment, turn it into a cloud of cosmic dust or a plasma nebula?”

AN602 (aka “Tsar Bomba”, aka “Kuzka’s Mother”, as well as (erroneously) RDS-202 and RN202 - thermonuclear aerial bomb, developed in the USSR in 1954-1961. a group of nuclear physicists under the leadership of Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences I.V. Kurchatov. The most powerful explosive device in the history of mankind. According to various sources, it had from 57 to 58.6 megatons of TNT equivalent. The mass defect during the explosion reached 2.65 kg. The total explosion energy is estimated at 2.4 1017 J. at the moment The bomb has been defused and is in the museum...

The development group included A. D. Sakharov, V. B. Adamsky, Yu. N. Babaev, Yu. N. Smirnov, Yu. A. Trutnev and others.

The name “Kuzka’s Mother” appeared under the impression of the famous statement of N. S. Khrushchev “We ​​will still show America Kuzka’s mother!” Officially, the AN602 bomb did not have a name. In correspondence, the designation “product B” was also used for RN202, and AN602 was subsequently called this way (the GAU index is “product 602”). Currently, all this is sometimes a cause of confusion, since AN602 is mistakenly identified with RDS-37 or (more often) with RN202 (however, the latter identification is partly justified, since AN602 was a modification of RN202). Moreover, as a result, the AN602 retroactively acquired the “hybrid” designation RDS-202 (which neither it nor the RN202 ever carried). The product received the name “Tsar Bomba” as the most powerful and destructive weapon in history.

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

It is worth noting that the above information about the start date of work is in partial contradiction with the official history of the institute (now it is the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics / RFNC-VNIITF). According to it, the order to create the corresponding research institute in the system of the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR was signed only on April 5, 1955, and work at NII-1011 began a few months later. But in any case, only the final stage of development of AN602 (already in KB-11 - now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics / RFNC-VNIIEF) in the summer-autumn of 1961 (and by no means the entire project as a whole !) really took 112 days. However, AN602 was not simply a renamed RN202. A number of design changes were made to the design of the bomb - as a result of which, for example, its alignment noticeably changed. AN602 had a three-stage design: the nuclear charge of the first stage (calculated contribution to the explosion power - 1.5 megatons) triggered a thermonuclear reaction in the second stage (contribution to the explosion power - 50 megatons), and it, in turn, initiated the nuclear “Jekyll reaction” Haida" (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.

The original version of the bomb was rejected due to the extremely high level of radioactive contamination it would cause; it was decided not to use the Jekyll-Hyde reaction in the bomb's third stage and to replace the uranium components with their lead equivalent. This reduced the estimated total yield of the explosion by almost half (to 51.5 megatons).

The first work on “topic 242” began immediately after negotiations between I.V. Kurchatov and A.N. Tupolev (took place in the fall of 1954), who appointed his deputy for weapons systems, A.V. Nadashkevich, as the head of the topic. The strength analysis carried out showed that the suspension of such a large concentrated load would require serious changes in the power circuit of the original aircraft, in the design of the bomb bay and in the suspension and release devices. In the first half of 1955, the dimensional and weight drawings of the AN602, as well as the layout drawing of its placement, were agreed upon. As expected, the mass of the bomb was 15% of the carrier's take-off mass, but its overall dimensions required the removal of the fuselage fuel tanks. Developed for the AN602 suspension, the new beam holder BD7-95-242 (BD-242) was similar in design to the BD-206, but significantly more load-bearing. It had three bomber castles Der5-6 with a carrying capacity of 9 tons each. The BD-242 was attached directly to the power longitudinal beams that edged the bomb bay. The problem of controlling the release of a bomb was also successfully solved - electrical automation ensured exclusively synchronous opening of all three locks (the need for this was dictated by security conditions).

On March 17, 1956, a joint resolution of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers No. 357-228ss was issued, according to which OKB-156 was to begin converting the Tu-95 into a carrier of high-power nuclear bombs. This work was carried out at the LII MAP (Zhukovsky) from May to September 1956. Then the Tu-95V was accepted by the customer and handed over for flight tests, which were carried out (including dropping a mock-up of the “superbomb”) under the leadership of Colonel S. M. Kulikov until 1959 and passed without any special comments. In October 1961, “Kuzkin’s Mother” delivered to the training ground by the Dnepropetrovsk crew.

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

Khrushchev announced the upcoming tests of a 50-megaton bomb in his report on October 17, 1961 at the XXII Congress of the CPSU.

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

2 hours after takeoff, the bomb was dropped from a height of 10,500 meters using a parachute system at a conditional target within the Sukhoi Nos nuclear test site. The bomb was detonated barometrically 188 seconds after being dropped at an altitude of 4200 m above sea level (4000 m above the target), however, there is other data on the height of the explosion - in particular, the numbers were given as 3700 m above the target (3900 m above sea level) and 4500 m). The carrier plane managed to fly a distance of 39 kilometers (according to some sources - 250 km), and the laboratory plane - 53.5 kilometers. The power of the explosion significantly exceeded the calculated one (51.5 megatons) and ranged from 57 to 58.6 megatons in TNT equivalent. There is also information that according to initial data, the explosion power of AN602 was significantly overestimated and was estimated at up to 75 megatons.

There is video footage of the aircraft carrying this bomb landing after the test; the plane was burned; upon inspection after landing, it was clear that some of the protruding aluminum parts had melted and deformed.

The explosion of AN602 was classified as a low air explosion of extremely high power. The results were impressive:

The fireball of the explosion reached a radius of approximately 4.6 kilometers. Theoretically, it could have grown to the surface of the earth, but this was prevented by the reflected shock wave, which crushed and threw the ball off the ground.
The radiation could potentially cause third-degree burns up to 100 kilometers away. Ionization of the atmosphere caused radio communications interference even hundreds of kilometers from the test site for about 40 minutes. A tangible seismic wave resulting from the explosion circled the globe three times. Witnesses felt the impact and were able to describe the explosion thousands of kilometers away from its center. The nuclear mushroom of the explosion rose to a height of 67 kilometers; the diameter of its two-tier “hat” reached (at the top tier) 95 kilometers. The sound wave generated by the explosion reached Dikson Island at a distance of about 800 kilometers. However, sources do not report any destruction or damage to structures even in the urban-type village of Amderma and the village of Belushya Guba located much closer (280 km) to the test site. Radioactive contamination of the experimental field with a radius of 2-3 km in the area of ​​the epicenter was no more than 1 mR/hour; the testers appeared at the site of the epicenter 2 hours after the explosion. Radioactive contamination posed virtually no danger to test participants

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

An extremely important scientific result was the experimental verification of the principles of calculation and design of multistage thermonuclear charges. It was experimentally proven that the maximum power of a thermonuclear charge, in principle, is not limited by anything. So, in the tested bomb, to increase the explosion power by another 50 megatons, it was enough to make the third stage of the bomb (which was the shell of the second stage) not from lead, but from uranium-238, as was standard. Replacing the shell material and reducing the explosion power were due only to the desire to reduce the amount of radioactive fallout to an acceptable level, and not to the desire to reduce the weight of the bomb, as is sometimes believed. However, the weight of AN602 did decrease from this, but only slightly - the uranium shell should have weighed about 2800 kg, the lead shell of the same volume - based on the lower density of lead - about 1700 kg. The achieved lightening of just over one ton is barely noticeable given the total weight of the AN602 of at least 24 tons (even if we take the most conservative estimate) and did not affect the state of affairs with its transportation.

It also cannot be said that “the explosion was one of the cleanest in the history of atmospheric nuclear testing” - the first stage of the bomb was a uranium charge with a yield of 1.5 megatons, which in itself provided a large amount of radioactive fallout. Nevertheless, it can be considered that for a nuclear explosive device of such power, AN602 was indeed quite clean - more than 97% of the explosion power was provided by the thermonuclear fusion reaction, which practically did not create radioactive contamination.

The discussion about the ways of political application of the technology for creating super-powerful nuclear warheads served as the beginning of ideological differences between N. S. Khrushchev and A. D. Sakharov, since Nikita Sergeevich did not accept Sakharov’s project to place several dozen super-powerful nuclear warheads with a capacity of 200 or even 500 megatons along the American sea ​​borders, which, according to the scientist, would sober up neoconservative circles political elite The United States without being drawn into a ruinous arms race.

Source - http://ru.wikipedia.org and others.

P.S. There are versions that the bomb's initial power was 400 megatons and was artificially reduced due to the fact that scientists feared the consequences of the explosion. There is a version that no one reduced the power of the explosion, and 50 megatons came out because “something went wrong.” There is also information that after the explosion, the thermonuclear reaction in the atmosphere continued for two hours. It was also planned to use projected missiles of the 8K68, UR-500, UR-700, UR-900 and others types as a carrier.