The Story of the Tsar Bomba
The Tsar Bomba, or “Big Ivan” as the Soviets nicknamed it, is the single most powerful
man-made explosive device in human history.
But why was such a device even made?
Well, for similar reasons as to why the U.S. once thought it would be fun to nuke the moon-
basically, the bomb was little more than the Soviet Union demonstrating its military might
and ingenuity; it was simply too massive to be easily deployed in regular warfare, particularly
nearly impossible for the Soviets to effectively deploy against the U.S.
The bomb itself was so powerful that the survival rate for the pilot and crew aboard the plane
that dropped it was estimated at 50%, and they were 10 km (about six miles) in the sky
and 45 km (28 miles) away when the parachuted bomb detonated at an elevation of about 4
km (2.5 miles).
And this is after they reduced the total yield of the bomb by half.
So surely such a device was tens of months, if not years in the making, no?
Of course it wasn’t, we’re talking about a country where popular alcoholic beverages
are practically weapons grade.
All in all, the bomb was built (and designed) by a small team of scientists and physicists
in, and this is where sources are hazy, between 14 and 16 weeks…
Seriously.
The bomb was the brain child of Nikita Khrushchev, who was keen to demonstrate the Soviet Union’s
nuclear ingenuity.
Khrushchev arranged a meeting with his lead weapon designer, Andrei Sakharov, and basically
told him that he wanted him to do something to “show the imperialists what we could
do”.
It’s not clear when the idea of making it a 100 megaton bomb came about or who made
the suggestion; what we do know is simply that Khrushchev tasked Sakharov with building
a device of “record breaking power“.
Keen to do his boss proud, Sakharov gathered a team of crack experts (three of whom were
called Yuri, for maximum Russian-ness) and between the five of them- yes there were only
five of them- in less time than it normally takes to knit a blanket, they created a bomb
capable of turning a city into a dark smudge.
While the bomb was being designed and built, Khrushchev positively reveled in the fuss
the bomb was creating.
As the device was being built for little more than a show of force, the usual secrecy measures
were ignored and Khrushchev loved that.
In fact, Khrushchev took great satisfaction in casually explaining the sheer power of
the device and how they’d have to make it less powerful.
Sakharov was decidedly more reserved when quizzed, only answering that the bomb was
a symbolic “dagger of Damacles” hanging over the heads of anyone who might oppose
Russia.
In regards to Khrushchev’s comments, the device did indeed need to be severely limited
in power partially because of concerns over nuclear fallout, but also because, as noted
above, the pilot and crew dropping the bomb only had a 50% survival rate; if the device
had been detonated at its maximum potential, this would have almost certainly been 0%.
The device did indeed have the potential to be detonated with a yield of 100 megatons,
though, but after some modifications- particularly using a lead tamper instead of one made of
depleted uranium in at least one of the three stages, and possibly two, this was halved
to a “mere” 50 megatons, which for your reference is over 3000 times more powerful
than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The modifications also helped the device break yet another record, along with being the most
powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated, it’s also the cleanest relative to the yield, as
the modifications along with halving the yield also removed 97% of the device’s potential
fallout.
On the 30th of October 1961, preparations had been finalized and Russia was ready to
show the world just what a 50 megaton explosion looked like.
However, even the final preparations were a tricky task as finding a plane capable of
even holding the bomb was something that required a team of engineers and a slew of modifications
to the chosen plane.
In the end, the bomb was carried by a heavily modified Tupolev Tu-95.
By heavily modified, we mean half of its bottom section was ripped out to make room for the
bomb, with half of the device awkwardly protruding from the plane.
The bomb itself weighed in at over 25 tons and measuring over 8 metres in length.
After the plane was painted with reflective paint (to partially protect it from the heat
from the explosion), they handed the keys to Major Andrei E. Durnovtsev.
When detonated, the bomb released a shock-wave so powerful it was noted to have circled the
Earth 3 times and was sufficiently powerful enough to shatter the windows of a building
900 km away… in Finland.
To say that the explosion absolutely decimated the area immediately surrounding it is an
understatement.
The “total destruction” blast radius of the bomb was a full 35 km (22 miles) and every
building in a small abandoned village 55 km (34 miles away) was also leveled.
The team surveying the area afterwards noted that the land surrounding the site was akin
to a perfectly smooth “skating rink“… and that’s the image we’d like to leave
you with, Russian scientists gleefully skating around in full scientists garb, presumably
tossing a Geiger counter back and forth in a friendly game of keep-away.
It’s a damn sight less scary than the image of a bomb made by a handful of scientists
in just a few months that was so powerful it could reduce any city on Earth to a sheet
of glass in under a minute.
Bonus Fact: • The Tsar Bomba was the last weapons project
Sakharov worked on; horrified by the power of the device he’d helped create, he became
a staunch opponent of nuclear weapons shortly after the test was completed.