īut making the first hydrogen bombs took a bit more time than that. Los Alamos researchers were doing calculations on theoretical fission-ignited fusion bombs with yields of 100 megatons by October 1944. Such a weapon, they reasoned, could be scaled up to the megaton range, a thousand-fold increase over the kiloton weapons they were contemplating for World War II. In a new era of nuclear weapons and delivery competition, the Tsar Bomba is a potent example of how nationalism, fear, and high-technology can combine in a fashion that is ultimately dangerous, wasteful, and pointless.Įven before the first atomic bomb was built, scientists in the United States had conceived of an even larger weapon, the “Super,” which would use the energy of a fission bomb to power nuclear fusion reactions in the heavy hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium-resulting in a much more powerful weapon than one fueled by fission alone. It is not just the story of a single weapon that was detonated six decades ago, but a parable about political posturing and technical enablement that applies just as acutely today.

The Tsar Bomba is not just a subject for history some of the same dynamics exist today. Sixty years after the detonation, it’s now finally possible to piece together a deeper understanding of the creation of the Tsar Bomba and its broader impacts. And memoirs from former Soviet weapons workers, only recently available outside Russia, make clear that the gigantic bomb’s place in the history of Soviet thermonuclear weapons may be far more important than has been appreciated. But recently declassified files from the Kennedy administration now indicate that the Tsar Bomba was taken far more seriously as a weapon, and possibly as something to emulate, than ever was indicated publicly. Within two years, though, the Soviet Union and the United States would sign and ratify the Limited Test Ban Treaty, prohibiting atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, and the 50-megaton bomb would fall into relative obscurity.įrom the very beginning, the United States sought to minimize the importance of the 50-megaton test, and it became fashionable in both the United States and the former Soviet Union to dismiss it as a political stunt with little technical or strategic importance. Īt the time of its detonation, the Tsar Bomba held the world’s attention, largely as an object of infamy, recklessness, and terror. Its single test represents about one tenth of the total yield of all nuclear weapons ever tested by all nations. Still, at 50 megatons, it was more than 3,300 times as powerful as the atomic bomb that killed at least 70,000 people in Hiroshima, and more than 40 times as powerful as the largest nuclear bomb in the US arsenal today. One civilian witness remarked that it was “as if the Earth was killed.” Decades later, the weapon would be given the name it is most commonly known by today: Tsar Bomba, meaning “emperor bomb.”ĭesigned to have a maximum explosive yield of 100 million tons (or 100 megatons) of TNT equivalent, the 60,000-pound monster bomb was detonated at only half its strength. Within ten minutes, it had reached a height of 42 miles and a diameter of some 60 miles. Over several minutes it rose and mushroomed into a massive cloud. The fireball expanded to nearly six miles in diameter-large enough to include the entire urban core of Washington or San Francisco, or all of midtown and downtown Manhattan. The flash alone lasted more than a minute. The sight was fantastic, unreal, and the fireball looked like some other planet. Behind it, like a funnel, the whole earth seemed to be drawn in. It grew larger and larger, and when it reached enormous size, it went up. A cameraman watching from the island recalled:Ī fire-red ball of enormous size rose and grew. A minute or so later, the bomb detonated. As the bomb fell, an enormous parachute unfurled to slow its descent, giving the pilot time to retreat to a safe distance. Slung below the plane’s belly was a nuclear bomb the size of a small school bus-the largest and most powerful bomb ever created.Īt 11:32 a.m., the bombardier released the weapon.

In the early hours of October 30, 1961, a bomber took off from an airstrip in northern Russia and began its flight through cloudy skies over the frigid Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya.

Atomic bomb names