stussy_demon Report This Comment Date: January 25, 2005 06:22PM
TZAR BOMBA...The state killer...50 mega-tonnes.
UK...1.8 Mgt (scientific proof they can; size is irrellevant)
USA...15 Mgt (cold war...as big as we can...shit! this was bigger than we
thought...nasty natural disaster)
USSR...50 Mgt (cold war...look at this fucker yanks)
stussy_demon Report This Comment Date: January 25, 2005 06:24PM
Name:Tzar Bomba;
Date:October 30, 1961;
Site:Novaya Zemlya;
Detonation:Airburst; Yield 50Mgt;
Type:Fission/Fusion;
On October 30, 1961, Tu-95 Bear bomber guided by pilot A. E. Durnovtsev(he
was made a Hero of the Soviet Union) flew towards Novaya the Zemlya Island in
the Arctic Sea. That day will forever remain in nuclear history as a day when
the most powerful thermonuclear has been detonated. Tzar Bomba (King Of The
Bombs) yielded 50Mgt. Originally US estimated its yield as 58 Mgt, however
resently declassified Russian materials show 50Mgt figure. Apparenly US
overestimated bomb power.
Probably only first nuclear and thermonuclear bombs caused as much reaction
as Tzar Bomba did. And there were reasons for that. Several events prior to bomb
detonation:
Jan. 1960 - Khrushchev's speech at the United Nations for support of "wars
of national liberation". Everyone understands what does it mean - Communist
intervension into third world countries.
Jan. 1961 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy in his inauguration speech replied:
"...oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty".
June 1961 - General Secretary Krushchev assures US President Kennedy that the
Soviet Union wouldn't conduct any nuclear devices if the United States would
maintain the same moratorium. As the world will see soon, this was a shameless
lie.
July 10, 1961 - Nikita Khruschev meets Andrey Sakharov, the senior weapon
designer by the time, and orders the development of a 100 megaton bomb. The
device had to be ready by September of the same year, so that the detonation of
such power would create maximum political effect.
Aug 1961 - Soviets build the infamous Berlin Wall, dividing Berlin into two
separate cities: East Berlin (communist) and West Berlin (democratic).
Sept. 1961 - President Kennedy's letter in the LIFE magazine, advising Americans
to build fallout shelters. For an entire year the fallout hysteria is raging.
As you can see Sakharov didn't have much time for development. Nevertheless,
Tzar is developed in a remarkably short time, just fourteen weeks after the
initiation of its design. The fully operational bomb weights 27 metric tons.
Which is more than any bomber can carry at that time. Hence, the decision is
made to produce Tzar's scaled down version. That was done by replacing the
uranium fusion tamper (which increases the yield significantly) with one made of
lead. That reduces the weight and eliminates fast fission by the fusion
neutrons, hence reducing the power of the original version. A 50 megaton bomb
was now ready to be detonated.
Tzar test was a parachute retarded Airburst at 4000 meter altitude. Delivery
method, Tu-95 Bear strategic bomber. The explosion of the immense power
significantly increased overall fission fallout in the world. It was clear that
from the military standpoint, the bomb of that size was ineffective as a
"City Killer", nevertheless USSR did need the bomb as an intimidating
factor in the political battle with US. It was meant to create the illusion that
USSR wasn't far behind from US with its nuclear armament, if not exceeding. In
fact USSR had less nuclear weapons at that time. Tzar's detonation caused very
negative response from the free world, but less likely that USSR cared about
that, it was an act of intimidation, nothing else. Interesting fact, Tzar's the
huge parachute made of nylon, disrupted Soviet nylon industry for a long time.
Ostensibly, Tzar didn't end the Cold War, nor helped to scale it down in any
way. It proved that the delivery of nuclear weapons by strategic bombers, and
aircraft in general was not an efficient way during wartime. It emphasize the
necessity of the reliable, fast, cost effective, immediate response to nuclear
attack cost effective to maintain. The result was the creation of new nuclear
weapons of war. The ICBM - intercontinental ballistic missile.
Bob Report This Comment Date: January 25, 2005 06:53PM
incredible picture
Tiw Report This Comment Date: January 25, 2005 09:20PM
All of these pics look like they were some sort of colourant added into a bowl
of clear water and then filmed as it dispursed. Before the days of computer
special effects they did it this way (or so I believe).
Anonymous Report This Comment Date: January 25, 2005 10:13PM
I wonder, did the detonation of all these nukes have any impact in the
now-obvious global climate instability? One can only wonder.
Anonymous Report This Comment Date: February 13, 2005 09:56PM
NATO is looking for trouble.
Nukes out of Yugoslavia
Headcase_ Report This Comment Date: March 29, 2005 03:24AM
No,no,no... NUKE YUGOSLAVIA. SEE THE DIFERENCE ?
