Today we're comparing the scale
of six of the world's
most destructive nuclear bombs,
Including one
so devastating
it was deemed too risky to use.
Brace yourself - it's about to get loud.
Starting off, we have the 15-kiloton bomb
that the U.S.
dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
“Little Boy”
caused the deaths of around
80,000 people
and exposed
tens of thousands
more to high levels of radiation.
It gets worse.
The temperature
near the blast site in Hiroshima
reached 300,000 ºC (540,000 ºF).
For perspective, that's about 300 times
hotter than the temperature
bodies are cremated at.
Sounds horrifying, right?
Well, we're just getting started.
In 2017,
North Korea detonated a nuclear bomb
16 times
more powerful
than the one that devastated Hiroshima.
The nuke is
said to have weighed in at around
250 kilotons. Ish.
Yeah, here's where
things get a little murky.
Researchers
aren't exactly sure
what the power of the bomb was,
and North Korea isn't spilling the tea.
But they estimate it was
between 148-328 kilotons.
On the other hand, the U.S.
intel community estimated
it was 140 kilotons.
One thing is for sure, though.
It was felt all around the world.
Seriously, this bomb was so intense
it caused an earthquake
with a magnitude of about 6.3!
The sound waves from the explosion
were so powerful that they were picked up
by seismometers worldwide.
Up next is one of the most powerful bombs
in the U.S.’s arsenal -
the B-83.
This nuke has a yield of around 1.2
megatons of TNT.
But what does that mean exactly?
Well, let's break it down.
You don't need to be a nuclear physicist
to know you wanna be
far away from one of these.
Once it hits, it'll create
blast waves
with a force of about 180 metric tons
and wind speeds of 255 km/h (158 mph)
within a 6 km (3.7 mi) radius.
If you were within about
a 21 km (13 mi) radius,
you’d experience flash blindness.
Within an 8 km (5 mi) circle,
you'd get third-degree
burns - you know,
where your body tissue gets blistered
and then destroyed.
And if you're within a 1 km (0.6 mi) radius,
you'll be hit by
blast waves with 720 metric tons of force
and winds of 756 km/h (470 mph).
Medically speaking, it's going to suck.
There are about 650 B-83s
in “active service.”
So that's comforting.
Next up, Castle Bravo -
the biggest nuclear bomb
ever tested by the U.S.
It packed a punch of around 15 megatons
and caused an explosion
two and half times
more devastating
than researchers anticipated.
And this was obviously a problem.
Yeah, this bomb was 1,000
times more powerful
than the one dropped on Hiroshima.
Radioactive debris spread across 18,000
sq km (7,000 sq mi),
contaminating people on
nearby islands
and even on a Japanese fishing trawler.
This was dubbed
the worst radiological disaster in U.S. history
and it caused a massive uproar
against nuclear testing.
Understandable
when you see the staggering
7.2 km wide (4.5 mi), 39.6 km high (24.6 mi) mushroom cloud!
Oh, and it created a crater on the ocean floor
nearly 2,000 m (6,500 ft) wide and 76 m (250 ft) deep.
That's huge!
But the next two on our list
are even bigger.
The Tsar Bomba 50 was not
your average bomb -
it was a hydrogen bomb
and the most powerful one ever tested.
It had a yield of about 50 megatons.
In 1961,
the USSR detonated it
on a small Arctic island,
creating a shockwave
that turned the island
into a flat skating rink.
The bomb was commissioned
by Nikita Khrushchev and weighed 27 tons
and required an aerial bomber
to transport it to the Arctic.
The detonation was so powerful
that it knocked the bomber down
900 meters (3,000 ft)
before the pilot could course correct.
In 2022, Russia
It’s not hard to see
why a bomb with this
kind of power was never made again.
But that doesn’t mean the USSR
didn’t want to.
OK, so Kruschev
may have commissioned the Tsar Bomba 50,
but did you know he originally wanted
a 100-megaton nuclear bomb?
Yeah, plus 50, baby.
The plan was to create
a three-layered bomb
with uranium layers
separating each stage,
but testing the bomb was too, what’s the word?
Risky.
Even Soviet physicists were worried
the bomb would cover
the whole north of the USSR
with a massive cloud of
radioactive fallout.
And if that’s
wasn't enough, the bomb was too heavy.
So heavy it
couldn't be placed on any missile
or strapped to any plane.
And even if it could have,
it would’ve taken a crazy amount of fuel
to get to the target and fly away safely,
making it a one-way trip for any pilot.
How long do you have to wait inside
while hiding from nuclear fallout?
Find out here on How to Survive.