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August 29, 1949 at the Semipalatinsk test site (Kazakhstan) successfully tested the first Soviet charge for an atomic bomb.
This event was preceded by a long and difficult work of physicists. The beginning of work on nuclear fission in the USSR can be considered the 1920s.
Since the 1930s, nuclear physics has become one of the main areas of Russian physical science, and in October 1940, for the first time in the USSR, a group of Soviet scientists made a proposal to use atomic energy for weapons purposes, submitting an application to the Invention Department of the Red Army "On the use of uranium as explosive and poisonous substances.
The war that began in June 1941 and the evacuation scientific institutes, dealing with the problems of nuclear physics, interrupted work on the creation of atomic weapons in the country. But already in the autumn of 1941, intelligence information began to arrive in the USSR about the conduct of secret intensive research work in the UK and the USA aimed at developing methods for using atomic energy for military purposes and the creation of explosives of enormous destructive power.
This information forced, despite the war, to resume work on uranium in the USSR. On September 28, 1942, a secret decree was signed State Committee Defense No. 2352ss "On the organization of work on uranium", according to which research on the use of atomic energy was resumed.
In February 1943, Igor Kurchatov was appointed scientific director of work on the atomic problem. In Moscow, headed by Kurchatov, Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute") was created, which began to study atomic energy.
Initially, Vyacheslav Molotov, Deputy Chairman of the State Defense Committee (GKO) of the USSR, was in charge of the nuclear problem. But on August 20, 1945 (a few days after the US carried out the atomic bombing of Japanese cities), the GKO decided to create a Special Committee, headed by Lavrenty Beria. He became the curator of the Soviet atomic project.
At the same time, for the direct management of research, design, engineering organizations and industrial enterprises occupied in the Soviet nuclear project, the First Main Directorate under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was created (later the Ministry of Medium Machine Building of the USSR, now the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom). The head of PSU was the former People's Commissar ammunition Boris Vannikov.
In April 1946, the design bureau KB-11 (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNIIEF) was created at Laboratory No. 2 - one of the most secret enterprises for the development of domestic nuclear weapons, whose chief designer was Yuli Khariton. Plant N 550 of the People's Commissariat of Ammunition, which produced artillery shells, was chosen as the base for the deployment of KB-11.
The top-secret object was located 75 kilometers from the city of Arzamas (Gorky region, now Nizhny Novgorod region) on the territory of the former Sarov monastery.
KB-11 was tasked with creating an atomic bomb in two versions. In the first of them, the working substance should be plutonium, in the second - uranium-235. In the middle of 1948, work on the uranium version was discontinued due to its relatively low efficiency compared to the cost of nuclear materials.
The first domestic atomic bomb had the official designation RDS-1. It was deciphered in different ways: “Russia makes itself”, “Motherland gives Stalin”, etc. But in the official resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of June 21, 1946, it was encrypted as “Special Jet Engine (“C”).
The creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was carried out taking into account the available materials according to the scheme of the US plutonium bomb tested in 1945. These materials were provided by Soviet foreign intelligence. An important source information was Klaus Fuchs - a German physicist, a participant in the work on the nuclear programs of the United States and Great Britain.
Intelligence materials on the American plutonium charge for the atomic bomb made it possible to reduce the time for the creation of the first Soviet charge, although many of the technical solutions of the American prototype were not the best. Even on early stages Soviet specialists could offer the best solutions for both the charge as a whole and its individual nodes. Therefore, the first charge for an atomic bomb tested by the USSR was more primitive and less effective than the original version of the charge proposed by Soviet scientists in early 1949. But in order to guarantee and in a short time to show that the USSR also possesses atomic weapons, it was decided to use a charge created according to the American scheme at the first test.
The charge for the RDS-1 atomic bomb was a multilayer structure in which the translation active substance- plutonium to the supercritical state was carried out due to its compression by means of a converging spherical detonation wave in an explosive.
RDS-1 was an aviation atomic bomb weighing 4.7 tons, 1.5 meters in diameter and 3.3 meters long. It was developed in relation to the Tu-4 aircraft, the bomb bay of which allowed the placement of a "product" with a diameter of no more than 1.5 meters. Plutonium was used as the fissile material in the bomb.
For the production of an atomic bomb charge in the city of Chelyabinsk-40 in the South Urals, a plant was built under the conditional number 817 (now the Mayak Production Association). uranium reactor, and a plant for the production of products from plutonium metal.
The plant's reactor 817 was brought to its design capacity in June 1948, and a year later the plant received the necessary amount of plutonium to manufacture the first charge for an atomic bomb.
The "stuffing" of the "501" bomb is the RDS-1 charge
The site for the test site, where it was planned to test the charge, was chosen in the Irtysh steppe, about 170 kilometers west of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. A plain with a diameter of about 20 kilometers was allotted for the test site, surrounded from the south, west and north by low mountains. To the east of this space were small hills.
The construction of the training ground, which was called training ground No. 2 of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR (later the Ministry of Defense of the USSR), was started in 1947, and by July 1949 it was basically completed.
For testing at the test site, an experimental site with a diameter of 10 kilometers, divided into sectors, was prepared. It was equipped with special facilities to ensure testing, observation and registration of physical research. In the center of the experimental field, a metal lattice tower 37.5 meters high was mounted, designed to install the RDS-1 charge. At a distance of one kilometer from the center, an underground building was built for equipment that registers light, neutron and gamma fluxes of a nuclear explosion. To study the impact of a nuclear explosion, segments of subway tunnels, fragments of airfield runways were built on the experimental field, samples of aircraft, tanks, artillery rocket launchers, ship superstructures of various types were placed. To ensure the operation of the physical sector, 44 structures were built at the test site and a cable network was laid with a length of 560 kilometers.
In June-July 1949, two groups of KB-11 workers with auxiliary equipment and household equipment were sent to the test site, and on July 24 a group of specialists arrived there, which was to be directly involved in preparing the atomic bomb for testing.
On August 5, 1949, the government commission for testing the RDS-1 issued a conclusion on the complete readiness of the test site.
On August 21, a plutonium charge and four neutron fuses were delivered to the test site by a special train, one of which was to be used to detonate a military product.
On August 24, 1949, Kurchatov arrived at the training ground. By August 26, all preparatory work at the landfill was completed. The head of the experiment, Kurchatov, ordered the testing of the RDS-1 on August 29 at eight o'clock in the morning local time and the conduct of preparatory operations starting at eight o'clock in the morning on August 27.
On the morning of August 27, the assembly of a combat product began near the central tower. On the afternoon of August 28, the bombers carried out the last full inspection of the tower, prepared the automation for the explosion and checked the explosive cable line.
At four o'clock in the afternoon on August 28, a plutonium charge and neutron fuses were delivered to the workshop near the tower. The final installation of the charge was completed by three o'clock in the morning on August 29. At four o'clock in the morning, the fitters rolled the product out of the assembly shop along the rail track and installed it in the tower's cargo lift cage, and then raised the charge to the top of the tower. By six o'clock, the equipment of the charge with fuses and its connection to the subversive circuit was completed. Then the evacuation of all people from the test field began.
In connection with the worsening weather, Kurchatov decided to postpone the explosion from 8.00 to 7.00.
At 6.35 the operators turned on the power of the automation system. 12 minutes before the explosion, the field machine was turned on. 20 seconds before the explosion, the operator turned on the main connector (switch) connecting the product to the automatic control system. From that moment on, all operations were performed by an automatic device. Six seconds before the explosion, the main mechanism of the automaton turned on the power of the product and part of the field devices, and one second turned on all the other devices, gave a signal to detonate.
Exactly at seven o'clock on August 29, 1949, the whole area was lit up with a blinding light, which marked that the USSR had successfully completed the development and testing of its first charge for an atomic bomb.
The charge power was 22 kilotons of TNT.
20 minutes after the explosion, two tanks equipped with lead shielding were sent to the center of the field to conduct radiation reconnaissance and inspect the center of the field. The reconnaissance found that all structures in the center of the field had been demolished. A funnel gaped in place of the tower, the soil in the center of the field melted, and a continuous crust of slag formed. Civilian buildings and industrial structures were completely or partially destroyed.
The equipment used in the experiment made it possible to carry out optical observations and measurements of the heat flow, shock wave parameters, characteristics of neutron and gamma radiation, determine the level of radioactive contamination of the area in the area of the explosion and along the trace of the explosion cloud, and study the impact of damaging factors of a nuclear explosion on biological objects.
For the successful development and testing of a charge for an atomic bomb, several closed decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated October 29, 1949 awarded orders and medals of the USSR to a large group of leading researchers, designers, and technologists; many were awarded the title of laureates of the Stalin Prize, and more than 30 people received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
As a result of the successful test of the RDS-1, the USSR eliminated the American monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons, becoming the second nuclear power in the world.
The Soviet atomic bomb was made in 2 years 8 months
(in the USA it took 2 years 7 months).
The design of the charge repeated the American "Fat Man", although the electronic filling was of Soviet design. The atomic charge was a multilayer structure in which plutonium was transferred to a critical state by compression by a converging spherical detonation wave. In the center of the charge was placed 5 kg of plutonium, in the form of two hollow hemispheres, surrounded by a massive shell of uranium-238 (tamper).
This shell served to inertially contain the nucleus swelling during the chain reaction, so that as much of the plutonium as possible had time to react and, in addition, served as a neutron reflector and moderator (low-energy neutrons are most effectively absorbed by plutonium nuclei, causing their fission). The tamper was surrounded by an aluminum shell, which ensured uniform compression of the nuclear charge by the shock wave. A neutron initiator (fuse) was installed in the cavity of the plutonium core - a beryllium ball with a diameter of about 2 cm, covered with a thin layer of polonium-210.
When the nuclear charge of the bomb is compressed, the nuclei of polonium and beryllium approach each other, and alpha particles emitted by radioactive polonium-210 knock out neutrons from beryllium, which initiate a chain nuclear fission reaction of plutonium-239. One of the most complex knots was an explosive charge consisting of two layers. The inner layer consisted of two hemispherical bases made of an alloy of TNT with RDX, the outer layer was assembled from individual elements with different detonation speeds. The outer layer, designed to form a spherical converging detonation wave at the base of the explosive, was called the focusing system.
For safety reasons, the installation of the node containing fissile material was carried out immediately before the charge was applied. To do this, in the spherical explosive charge there was a through conical hole, which was closed with a cork made of explosives, and in the outer and inner cases there were holes closed with lids. The power of the explosion was due to the fission of the nuclei of about a kilogram of plutonium, the remaining 4 kg did not have time to react and was uselessly sprayed.
Drawing of the atomic bomb, which appeared in 1953 at the trial in the case of the Rosenberg spouses, accused of atomic espionage in favor of the USSR.
Interestingly, the drawing was secret and was not shown to either the judge or the jury. The drawing was declassified only in 1966. Photo: Department of Justice. Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern Judicial District of New York. Source Source
I wonder what can be made according to this drawing?
The first Soviet atomic bomb, tested at training ground No. 2 of the Ministry of the Armed Forces (Semipalatinsk test site) on August 29, 1949, was designed by KB-11 (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNIIEF, Sarov) and manufactured jointly with plant No.-817 under the scientific I.V. Kurchatov and Yu.B. Khariton according to the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the terms of reference of Yu.B. Khariton.
Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov
employees of KB-11 VNIIEF, Sarov
RDS-1 was an aviation atomic bomb weighing 4700 kg, 1500 mm in diameter and 3300 mm long. It used plutonium as the fissile material.
In the process of preparing for the testing of the atomic bomb, an exceptionally large amount of work had to be done not only in the development, but also in the creation of a nuclear test site, its arrangement, scientific, methodological and instrumental support for the experiment.
The final stage can be conditionally divided into three main stages:
The first is the preparation stage carried out in KB-11 in the period from April to July 1949;
- the second - performed at the training ground in the third decade of July - until August 26, 1949;
- the third stage - the final operations, which began on August 27, and the experiment itself.
April 11, 1949, the date of issuance of the order of the head of the facility (KB-11 - VNIIEF) P.M., can be taken as the beginning of the final stage of preparation for the field experiment. Zernov to ensure work related to the upcoming field tests.
In accordance with the order, a special group of seven people was created to manage all the preparations for the tests, headed by the deputy chief designer, Professor K.I. Shchelkin. The group was tasked with developing general program work at the test site, conducting training experiments, developing various instructions and schedules, exercising operational control over the progress of preparation for testing by the departments of the institute.
The first atomic bomb of the USSR RDS-1
schematic diagram of RDS-1
The preparation of the RDS-1 for testing was under the constant control of the administration, the scientific and technical leadership of KB-11 and the Soviet government. So, already in April 1949, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Union L.P. Beria was presented with two reports on the status of work on the development of the atomic bomb and its preparation for testing. The reports reported that by April 1949 all fundamental theoretical, design and technological issues had been resolved. In particular, the following was noted.
Under the guidance of Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Ya.B. Zepdovich, a general theory of charge operation was constructed and the necessary calculations were carried out.
Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich
TO numerical solution differential and integral equations involved large forces from Mathematical Institute Academy of Sciences and its Leningrad branch. Based general theory products, as well as technological and operational considerations, the main design dimensions of a nuclear charge are determined. The design of the neutron fuse (N3) and the technology of its manufacture, the design of a composite charge from explosives, which ensures the creation of a converging detonation wave, have been developed.
RDS-1 charge
The processes of detonation of explosives and composite charges have been studied in detail, and the properties of materials used in the construction of an atomic charge at ultrahigh pressures have been studied. The production of charges from explosives with stable characteristics has been established.
A system of synchronous ignition has been developed, which ensures the simultaneous operation of primers - detonators (CD).
The ballistics of the atomic bomb was worked out jointly with the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (Academician S.A. Khristianovich).
The automation of the product has been developed, which ensures the reliability of operation and safety of operation. The performance of the entire RDS-1 product without a plutonium charge was confirmed experimentally when dropped from an aircraft at the 71st Air Force training ground.
The reports noted that in order to complete the development and manufacture of the first atomic bomb, it is necessary to conduct state tests of five RDS-1 mock-ups at 71 test sites, to accumulate the required amount of plutonium and material for NS, to manufacture a plutonium charge and NS. The result of the work should be the testing of an atomic bomb at the Semipalatinsk test site (Training Ground No. 2 of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR).
photo from space
In the reports of the chief designer Yu.B. Khariton and his deputy K.I. Shchelkin dated April 15, 1949 contained a proposal to appoint a commission to review and approve the program of training experiments at training ground No. 2. A document was attached to the report defining the procedure for testing RDS-1 at this training ground.
In the process of preparing for the experiment, a special role was assigned to the development of personnel actions in conditions as close as possible to the testing grounds. To this end, in May - early July 1949, groups of direct executors of work and responsible managers were formed in KB-11, defined and reflected in work instructions or technological maps the sequence of operations and methods of their implementation, four training explosions of products without plutonium charges were carried out at the internal test site KB-11, during which the technology of the experiment was refined.
The technology for preparing the experiment included the following work:
Assembly of a charge from explosives delivered to the landfill in disassembled form in an assembly building located on a site 10 km from the center of the field;
Delivery of the assembled explosive charge to the workshop near the metal tower installed in the center of the experimental field. A.Ya. was appointed responsible for the assembly of the charge. Malsky - director of plant No. 2 at KB-11 for the manufacture of parts from explosives;
Installation of the ignition system for electric detonators under the supervision of Deputy Chief Designer V.I. Apferov;
Assembly of a plutonium charge with a neutron fuse under the supervision of Deputy Chief Designer N. L. Dukhov;
Placement of the central part in the charge and its final assembly of the latter under the direction of A. Ya. Malsky, N. L. Dukhov and V. I. Alferov;
Transfer of the product to a group of demolition workers led by K.I. Shchelkin and Deputy Head of the Laboratory S.N. Matveev;
Lifting the product to the tower, equipping it with detonator caps, connecting to a subversive circuit;
Product disruption.
The specified sequence of work and the distribution of responsibilities between the executives of KB-11 were retained until combat experience.
The program instructed the persons responsible for carrying out the final operations to accept the components and parts necessary for these works in KB-11, to be responsible for their delivery to the test site, storage and assembly at the test site until the delivery of their work to the Government Commission.
In the period from 4 to 6 July 1949, B.L. Vannikov and I.V. Kurchatov, together with the management of KB-11, considered issues related to the theoretical design, design, experimental and technological development of the RDS-1, the procedure for sending to the training ground, conducting training and combat experiments.
In the report of B.L. Vannikov and I.V. Kurchatov on the preparations for the tests of the first atomic bomb, sent by Beria, the completion of the development of the RDS-1 and the validity of specifications products.
At the same time, it was pointed out that it was necessary to complete experiments on measuring nuclear constants, according to the results of which, before August 1, it was necessary to determine the final dimensions and mass of the plutonium charge, as well as to develop a duplicate technology for preparing the experiment, providing for the installation of plutonium parts in an explosive charge delivered to the test site in the assembled form.
The procedure for mounting the RDS-1 at the test site was approved after it was tested in a specially equipped KB-11 room, where the assembly stands, the tower's lifting cage, access roads to it and handling facilities located near the tower at the test site were reproduced in full size. The same document ordered to send two training and five combat sets of explosive charges to the training ground. The decision to send five combat sets of explosive charges with one plutonium charge was made in order to insure against unforeseen accidents that could lead to damage to explosive charges during transportation, storage and work at the test site.
By decision of B. L. Vannikov and I. V. Kurchatov, Yu.B. Khariton, and the direct supervision of the assembly of the product and its detonation at the test site - on K.I. Shchepkin.
Yu.B. Khariton was endowed with fairly broad powers, in particular, he was given the right to single-handedly decide on the removal from experience of any devices and devices of the test site that could in some way damage or interfere with the undermining of the RDS-1. It is not known whether Yuli Borisovich had to exercise his rights in full, but the fact that after a general check of the readiness of the experimental field by a commission with the participation of Yu.B. Khariton, it was decided that it was inadmissible to establish a new method for measuring the time interval between the moment the impulse to detonate the explosive was given and the moment the nuclear reaction began - a true fact.
Julius Borisovich Khariton with RDS-1
One of the main issues in the creation of an atomic bomb was the choice of the size and mass of the plutonium charge, providing the required value of the coefficient of performance (COP), power and reducing the likelihood of an incomplete explosion.
Based on detailed calculations, the group of academician L.D. By June 1949, Landau issued a series of efficiency values for several typical values of the masses and sizes of a plutonium charge, and by the end of June, the final interpolation formula for calculating the efficiency.
Previously, the mass and dimensions of the plutonium charge were determined at a meeting in KB-11 with the participation of B.L. Vannnkov and I.V. Kurchatov, held on June 8. The participants of the meeting, having discussed the results of computational and theoretical work, agreed with the characteristics of the plutonium charge intended for the first test proposed by the developers.
By July, Combine No. 817 had produced a set of parts for the plutonium charge. For physical measurements A group of physicists headed by the head of the laboratory, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences G.N. Flerov, and for processing the results of these measurements, calculating the values of efficiency and the probability of an incomplete explosion, a group of theorists led by Ya.B. Zeldovich. At the end of July, I.V. Kurchatov, B.L. Vannikov, A.L. Zavenyagin and Yu.B. Khariton.
Here, on July 27, 1949, a meeting was held to decide on the final dimensions of the first plutonium product.
The meeting was attended by B.L. Vannikov, A.P. Zavenyagin, I.V. Kurchatov, B.G. Muzrukov, Yu.B. Khariton, Ya.B. Zepdovich, G.N. Flerov, D.A. Frank-Kamenetsky.
Yu.B. Khariton and Ya.B. Zeldovich. The meeting participants agreed with the proposed mass and dimensions of the plutonium charge and the expected characteristics of the RDS-1: a capacity of approximately 10,000 tons.
August 2 I.V. Kurchatov, Yu.B. Khariton, Ya.B. Zeldovich and G.N. Flerov signed an act confirming the suitability of the finally manufactured plutonium charge, and on August 5, 1949, at the plant No. 817, E.P. Slavsky, I.V. Kurchatov, A.A. Bochvar et al. signed the technical data sheets with a certificate of suitability for the details of the first plutonium charge. These passports are still kept in the VNIIEF archive.
Already on August 8, plutonium parts were delivered to KB-11, carefully examined and prepared for the “control assembly of RDS-1, which was carried out on the night of August 10-11. The plutonium charge was installed in an explosive charge. After the installation of the central node, the final assembly of the charge was carried out according to the standard technology.
During the control assembly, measurements of neutron and gamma radiation were continuously made. The measurements carried out confirmed the calculated parameters of the growth rate of the neutron multiplication factor and its numerical value. In general, the control assembly confirmed the correctness of the calculations, the development of the technology for assembling an atomic charge, its full compliance with technical requirements and suitability for nuclear testing.
The details of the plutonium charge after dismantling from the explosive charge were inspected, packed and prepared for shipment to the landfill. These were one of the last operations carried out in KB-11 to prepare the first atomic bomb for testing.
In June - July 1949, two groups of KB-11 workers with auxiliary equipment and household equipment were sent to the test site, and on July 24 a group of specialists headed by P.M. Zernov, which was to be directly involved in the preparation of the atomic bomb for testing. On July 26, the entire composition of the government commission, chaired by M.G., gathered at the training ground. Pervukhin, which included P.M. Zernov, K.I. Shchelkin and A. Sverdlov.
The development of a nuclear charge was completed, and the first stage of the final stage of preparation for testing the first atomic bomb was completed. Ahead was a serious exam - field tests.
There was about a month left before the test of the atomic bomb. The center of all training moved to the test site, where intensive work was carried out to complete the construction of facilities intended for assembling the product, setting physical measurements and placing the test objects.
What was the polygon?
The place for training ground No. 2 of the Ministry of the Armed Forces was chosen near the city of Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR, in a waterless steppe with rare abandoned and dry wells, salt lakes, partially covered with low mountains.
The site itself, intended for the construction of the test complex, was a plain about 30 km in diameter, surrounded from the south, west and north by low (up to 200 m) mountains - a wonderful place, as if nature itself had taken care of creating maximum convenience for the upcoming tests.
Headquarters military unit, which is the owner of the future test site, together with a residential town, with a scientific and material base, is located on the banks of the Irtysh River, 60 km northeast of the test site, 120 km from Semipalatinsk.
monument to I.V. Kurchatov in front of the headquarters of the training ground No. 2
The territory within a radius of 100 km around the selected center of the test field, used only by Kazakh nomads for grazing, did not have permanent settlements, and after the creation of the test site was alienated. For Kazakh nomads, about 20 km from the military town downstream of the Irtysh, a settlement was built from prefabricated panel houses near the ancient Kazakh settlement of Akzhary. However, these houses did not correspond to the everyday traditions of the nomads and did not last long - they were destroyed and burned.
On the territory of the deployment of the military unit on the banks of the Irtysh, the building of the headquarters of the command of the military unit, the house of officers, a two-story hotel for business travelers, two 8-apartment buildings - one for commanders military unit, the other - a hotel for seconded members of the commission. Immediately, next to the headquarters, there were two-story buildings of the military trade - manufactured goods and food stores. Nearby, several blocks of two-story 8- and 12-apartment residential buildings were built for officers of the military unit.
The construction of the landfill began in 1947, and by July 1949 it was basically completed. In just two years, a colossal volume of work was completed, with excellent quality and at a very high technical level. To this it must be added that all Construction Materials, ranging from sand and gravel to metal structures, were delivered to construction sites by road along dirt roads for 100-200 km. The traffic went around the clock in winter and summer. Points were arranged on the highways every 25 km where a tired driver could rest, warm up or call a technical or medical care in case of unforeseen circumstances.
All builders, from ordinary soldiers to colonels, had extensive experience gained on the fronts. Patriotic War. Soldiers and officers worked here, subject to demobilization, but detained for extended service for the construction of test site facilities.
The construction of numerous ground and underground instrument structures, buildings, workshops and other facilities on the experimental field, as well as the construction of structures and buildings on the sites "H", "Sh", "O" and "M" was carried out by the military construction units of the Ministry of the Armed Forces. They were led by Lieutenant General of the Engineering Service Timofeev, an exceptionally competent specialist with excellent knowledge of military engineering, a talented organizer, a wonderful person, an intellectual who had experience in military engineering since the time of the tsarist army.
For testing the atomic bomb at the test site, the following were prepared:
Experimental field with a radius of 10 km, equipped with special facilities that provide testing, observation and registration of physical measurements;
Site "H", located on the eastern border of the experimental field, with buildings and structures designed to assemble the product before testing, store atomic bomb components and parts, apparatus and equipment;
Headquarters camp (site "Sh"), located approximately 5 km from the border of the experimental field, on its northeastern radius and intended to accommodate the headquarters of the guard troops and power supply of the experimental field;
Residential town (site "M", now the city of Kurchatov), located 60 km to the northeast of the experimental field and about 130 km west of the city of Semipalatinsk, downstream of the Irtysh River;
The laboratory town is one and a half kilometers from the residential town.
All objects, with the exception of the experimental field, did not represent anything unusual. The experimental field impressed with its size and saturation with structures with measuring equipment, equipment, constructed civil and industrial facilities designed to study the impact of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion.
In the center of the experimental field, a metal lattice tower "1 - P", 37.5 m high, was mounted to install the RDS-1 test product. The tower is equipped with a cargo and passenger lift with electric control.
At 25 m from the tower there was a building made of reinforced concrete structures, with an overhead crane in the hall for installing a plutonium charge into an explosive charge.
The experimental field is conditionally divided into 14 sectors. Among them: two fortification sectors; sector of civil structures and structures; physical sector; military sectors, in which, at various distances from the center, samples of weapons and military equipment of all types of troops were placed in the open and in shelters of various types; biological sector.
A section of the highway with a reinforced concrete bridge with a span of 8-10 m was built 1500 m from the center in a western direction. The roadbed was raised to an embankment 3-4 m high.
A section was built 1000 m from the center in a southwestern direction railway with a metal bridge with a span of 20 m. A freight car and a fuel tank are installed on the bridge and in front of the bridge on the tracks.
800 m from the center in southbound two three-story houses were built, one of which shielded the other. The distance between the houses corresponds to the width of a normal city street (approximately 20 m).
A power station building with two diesel generators was built 1500 m from the center in the southeast direction, a power line was built on metal supports with a length of 2 km in the direction to the center.
At 1500 m from the center in a northerly direction, a brick-concrete building of an industrial type of a simplified design with an overhead crane was erected.
Along the radii of the northeast and southeast directions at various distances from the center, instrument buildings were erected to accommodate photochronographic, film and oscillographic equipment that records the effect of a nuclear explosion.
At a distance of about 1000 m from the center in an easterly direction, an underground building 1 OP was built, in which equipment is located that registers light, neutron and gamma fluxes of a nuclear explosion from detectors located on the daylight surface at various distances from the center of the explosion.
Optical and oscilloscope equipment installed in all measuring points (structures) is controlled via cables from a programmable machine located in building 12P. The charge detonation control cable line at a distance of 3 km from the center has a switch disconnector located in a reinforced concrete bunker PP. A dugout was built 7 km from the center in the southeast direction for the production of training explosions of charges. At 200-300 m from the center at depths of 15-30 m, sections of metro tunnels with various reinforcement designs were built. At various distances from the center, segments of runways made of reinforced concrete and metal shields were built.
To study the impact of the shock wave and light radiation of a nuclear explosion on military equipment a lot of aircraft of various designs and purposes, tanks, artillery rocket launchers, ship superstructures, ammunition, etc. were placed throughout the field.
Military equipment was installed at various distances from the center of the explosion with various orientations to the center of the explosion, in caponier-type shelters and in open areas. At a distance of about 9 km from the center, two Pe-2 aircraft were installed, one - as if on takeoff, the second - on a sharp turn.
At a distance of 500-2500 m, fortifications were built: trenches with log and brushwood covering of slopes, dugouts, bunkers, etc.
Experimental animals were housed in armored vehicles, shelters, and open areas at various distances from the center: dogs, sheep, pigs, rats, mice, and even two camels.
At the locations of equipment and experimental animals, the values of light, neutron and gamma fluxes and the amplitude of the shock wave were measured.
High-speed and normal film equipment filmed the development of the explosion, the formation and development of a gas cloud, from various distances from the center of the explosion and the impact of the shock wave on structures and military equipment.
Thus, the experimental field is equipped with a wide variety of means for determining the impact of nuclear explosion parameters on equipment, ground and underground structures various economic and military purposes, on animals. Equipped with instruments designed to record the parameters of a nuclear explosion: shock wave, light radiation, neutron and gamma flux.
In addition, in order to study the impact of penetrating radiation on food products at various distances from the center of the explosion, sets of NZ were placed in an open field: canned food, sausages, chocolate, drinks, and so on.
All this huge economy - equipment, animals, measuring complexes, automated control systems for these complexes, required qualified maintenance and in very large volumes. For this, it was attracted a large number of military officers and privates, most of whom had engineering experience during World War II. For the transportation of weapons, equipment and property of other branches of the armed forces, 90 railway cars were needed.
The physical sector was of the greatest interest. In it, on two redundant northeastern and southeastern directions, the following were built: 15 reinforced concrete towers 20 m high; 2 metal towers of the same height; 17 small reinforced concrete towers 3 m high; 2 underground casemates; 2 panels for automatic control of devices, command post with a programmable machine.
In general, to ensure the tasks of the physical sector, 44 structures were built at the test site and a cable network was laid with a length of 560 km.
In the structures and on the surface of the earth, equipment was placed designed to measure the parameters characterizing the operation of the product and the damaging factors of the explosion.
Now we know that the Semipalatinsk test site was built in just two years by 15,000 builders and cost the devastated and hungry country after the Great Patriotic War a huge amount for those times - about 180 million rubles, not counting the cost of all other preparations for the test.
The government commission chaired by M.G. Pervukhina started work on July 27. Until August 5, the commission held 9 meetings, at which specific issues related to the preparation for testing of all services and facilities of the test site were discussed. In the act of the commission dated August 5, a conclusion was made that the landfill was fully ready by August 10 and it was proposed to the management of the landfill and KB-11 to conduct a detailed development of operations for assembling and undermining the product, as well as the interaction of all services of the landfill and KB-11 within 15 days. The test date was looming - the last days of August.
I.V. was appointed the head of the test of the first nuclear charge RDS-1. Kurchatov. On the part of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, the general management of the preparation of the test site was carried out by Major General V.A. Sore. MA was appointed scientific leader of the test site. Sadovsky.
Viktor Anisimovich Bolyatko
The operational dispatch service monitored the compliance of the progress of work with the operational plan. Control over the preparation of automatic control of the charge detonation was carried out by Colonel N.P. Egorov and Lieutenant Colonel I.A. Savin. Highly qualified engineers, who were well versed in all the intricacies of our technology, they provided great assistance in the high-quality preparation of the automation system and helped to avoid incorrect actions.
In accordance with the conclusion of the commission, from August 10 to August 26, 10 rehearsals of the joint operation of the field control and the remote control of the product with a cable line were held, as well as three training counts with the launch of all equipment. During these exercises, the full cycle of RDS-1 preparation was practiced, including the assembly of a ball charge, with the exception of the installation of plutonium, its lifting and detonation automation to the cargo platform of the "1 - P" tower, located at a 30-meter height, a control check of the line and detonation automation, equipping the product with detonator caps and undermining it.
The first experiment (control) was carried out with an inert product. It focused on fixing the charge in the hoist cage and on the tower loading platform, on checking the operability of the detonation and field automation. A feature of the second control experiment was the use of an explosive charge transported from KB-11 to the test site by train in assembled form.
In the third general control experiment, the explosive charge, as well as the charge intended for combat detonation, was assembled at the test site. All units involved in the tests took part in this experience.
In the last two control experiments, after work on the 1-P tower, the charges were lowered down, transported to a remote platform, installed there on a stand 3.5 m high and detonated from the detonation automation system.
The training exercises confirmed the good quality of the assembly of charges, the reliability of the automatic detonation system and the explosive line, the readiness of all services and personnel for a full-scale test.
At the direction of M.G. Pervukhin, a unified control system for detonating the charge and field automation was combined and tested.
After the general training experiment, the control system for the detonation of the product and the instruments of the experimental field, as directed by M.G. Pervukhin, was transferred under the leadership of K.I. Shchelkin, in charge of which she was until the undermining of a regular product.
On August 21, a plutonium charge and 4 neutron fuses were delivered to the test site by a special train, one of which was to be used to detonate a military product.
On August 24, the head of the experiment I.V. arrived at the test site. Kurchatov and member of the Special Council A.P. Zavenyagin.
The readiness of individual components of the RDS-1, the automation system and the detonation line, all sectors of the experimental field was confirmed by the relevant acts. Head of experience I.V. Kurchatov, in accordance with the instructions of L.P. Beria, gives the order to test the RDS-1 on August 29 at 8 o'clock local time and conduct preparatory operations starting from 8 o'clock on August 27.
Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria
The third stage - testing of the first Soviet atomic bomb
At 8 o'clock on August 27 near the central tower, in strict accordance with the requirements of the approved technological instructions and the work schedule, the assembly of the combat product began.
G.N. Flerov, D.P. Shirshov, A.I. Veretennikov mounted equipment on the tower to check the neutron background of the charge in the last minutes before the explosion.
K.I. Shchelkin, in his report, written at the test site on 09/13/49, notes that this "...work took place in a calm atmosphere. As it turned out, many performers, it seemed later, that it was not a combat experience that was going on, but a repetition of the general control experiment was being prepared."
The explosive charge was delivered from the assembly building of site "H" the day before. On August 27, by the end of the day, the electrical initiation system was installed and tested on the charge. It remained to put only one socket under the detonator cap on a removable explosive charge element, which was installed only after the installation of the plutonium charge. The time for this operation has not yet come: it will be carried out after the installation of the plutonium charge.
On the afternoon of August 28, the bombers carried out the last full inspection of the tower, prepared the automation for the explosion and checked the demolition cable line. Control equipment was mounted on the tower to remotely check the neutron background of the product in the last minutes before the explosion. At 4 p.m., a plutonium charge and neutron fuses were delivered to the workshop near the tower. A reinforced guard arrived.
Control panel for the detonation of the first atomic bomb
On the night of August 28-29, Yu.B. Khariton and N.L. Spirits with assistants and in the presence of I.V. Kurchatov, A.P. Zavenyagin, A.S. Apeksandrova, P.M. Zernov collected a plutonium charge and a neutron fuse in a special central part and inserted it into an explosive charge. The final installation of the charge was completed by 03:00 on 29.08. under the direction of A.Ya. Malsky and V.I. Alferov.
Members of the special committee L.P. Beria, M.G. Pervukhin and VA. Makhnev controlled the course of the final operations. They arrived at the tower around 19:00 and then left for the command post. At about 12 o'clock at night, they again arrived at the field and were present during the work, first at the center, and after lifting the product to the tower, at the command post until the explosion.
At 4 am on August 29, having received permission from L.P. Beria and I.V. Kurchatov to raise the charge on the tower, K.I. Shchelkin gave permission to take the charge out of the assembly shop.
At 4.00 a.m., the installers of KB-11, led by D.A. Fishman, the product was rolled out of the assembly shop along the rail track and installed in the cage of the tower's cargo lift.
David Abramovich Fishman
By 4 o'clock in the morning on August 29, after sealing the automation system and connectors on the blasting line, the blasters K.I. arrived at the tower. Shchelkin and S.N. Matveev with a set of detonators packed in a small suitcase.
Strong gusts of wind caused fear for the operation of the passenger elevator. However, it was decided to lift K.I. Shchelkin and S.N. Matveev with detonator caps, and then A.P. Zavenyagin with A.S. Alexandrov.
The ascent went well. After that, the cargo compartment with the product was also raised up, accompanied by P.M. Zernov. G.L. Lominsky with the help of A.A. Izmailova on the elevator raised the charge to the top of the tower.
At 5.00 all employees, with the exception of K.I. Shchelkina, S.N. Matveeva, G.P. Lominsky, A.L. Zavenyagin, A.S. Apeksandrov and P.M. Zeriova, left the tower.
By 6.00 in the morning, the equipment of the charge with fuses and its connection to the subversive circuit was completed by the specialists of KB-11 K.I. Shchelkin, G.P. Lominsky and S.N. Matveev in the presence of Generals A.L. Zavenyagin, A.S. Alexandrova and P.M. Zernov.
At a height of 30 m, the cage was fixed. At the same time, the equipment for monitoring the neutron background was connected.
All people were evacuated from the experimental field, except for the security officers of the Ministry of State Security.
Inspection of the product, equipping it with capsules, connecting to the detonation scheme and re-examination took about an hour, and were completed by 6.00. On the progress of all the work of P.M. Zernov reported to I.V. Kurchatov.
In order to avoid trouble with the passenger elevator, the reliability of which was guaranteed with a wind of no more than 6 m / s, the descent from the tower was carried out by stairs. The trailers were A.P. Zavenyagin and K.I. Shchepkin, who sealed the entrances to the tower.
K.I. Shchelkin writes in his report: “Only after the descent, the participants in the operation discovered a sharp deterioration in the weather. Low over the field, ragged clouds swept over the entire sky. observations."
After the descent of people from the tower and the sealing of all mechanisms, the guards were removed and the evacuation of people from the field began.
At an intermediate point, three kilometers from the center of S.N. Matveev in the presence of A.P. Zavenyagin and K.I. Shchepkina turned on the connector, thereby connecting the equipment on the tower with the equipment at the command post. This operation ended all work on the field.
At 0600, the bombers arrived at the command post and reported to L.P. Beria and I.V. Kurchatov about the complete readiness of the product for detonation, and the head of the test site, General S.G. Kolesnikov reported the readiness of the landfill.
General G.O. Komarov, who commanded aviation, reported that due to a sharp deterioration in the weather, the departure of the aircraft with photographic equipment was delayed.
The approaching storm worried the leaders of the experiment. L.P. Beria, A.P. Zavenyagin, I.V. Kurchatov left command post to an open place in the hope of seeing a clearing. But it was not foreseen. I.V. Kurchatov decides to postpone the explosion from 8.00 to 7.00.
General Babkin removed the sentry from the door of the automatic detonation control room, and K.I. Shchelkin, S.L. Davydov, S.S. Chugunov, I.I. Denisov and S.N. Matveev entered the room and locked themselves from the inside.
According to the design of the shelter, the command post had loopholes facing the field, through which it was supposed to observe the development of the explosion. But in last days, on the advice of M.A. Sadovsky, in order to ensure the guaranteed safety of the personnel, it was decided to fill up the wall of the command post facing the field with earth to the roof, thereby eliminating the possibility of observing the explosion. Even the periscope from a submarine in one of the rooms of the command post was forbidden to be used for observation during the explosion.
All shelter rooms had a loud-speaking connection to the control room and a flyback clock. Therefore, everyone could hear and see how many minutes and seconds remain until "H".
The entrance armored doors of shelters were closed with reliable safe locks. All personnel moved away from the walls, standing in the middle of the rooms, froze in anticipation of what was about to happen, counting the remaining seconds along with the clock.
At 6.35 the operators turned on the power of the automation system. For "H" -12 minutes, the field machine was turned on.
20 seconds before the explosion, the operator, at the command of the head of the explosion, turned on the main connector (switch) connecting the product to the automatic control system. From that moment on, all operations were performed by an automatic device. The last and main mechanism of the automaton began to move. Its functions are as follows: turn on the power supply of the product and part of the field devices 6 seconds before the explosion, turn on all other devices 1 second before, give a detonation signal. However, it remained possible to stop the process with one movement of the hand at the command of the chief. There was no reason to stop.
The announcer (A.Ya. Malsky) reported:
10 seconds left...
Only 5 seconds left...
-4
-3
-2
-1
Zero
After the word "zero", at exactly 7:00 am on August 29, 1949, the whole area was lit up with a dazzling light, a crackling sound was heard in the electrical wires, everything was quiet. The blinding light marked that the USSR had successfully completed the development and testing of the first atomic bomb.
And here is how this historical moment is described in the report on the test of the first atomic bomb, written by A.S. Alexandrov on September 13, 1949 and signed by I.V. Kurchatov, A.P. Zavenyagin, Yu.B. Khariton, M.G. Meshcheryakov, K.I. Shchelkin and M.A. Sadovsky.
"Exactly at 7 o'clock, simultaneously with the third short signal of the machine gun, the surroundings were illuminated by an unusually bright flash, and it became obvious to everyone that the atomic explosion had been successfully carried out. There were exclamations:" Yes! Happened! It's done!" It is not difficult to imagine the state of people who have been preparing for testing a fundamentally new type of weapon for so many years.
After 20 seconds, the doors of the command post were closed. Despite the large distance from the center of the field, which ran in a few seconds shock wave was accompanied by a powerful roar, windows were broken in the command post building and some of those present were deafened and felt severe pain in their ears. After the passage of the shock wave, the doors of the command post were opened, all those present left the room and began to observe the field.
A huge black column of smoke and dust from the central part of the field rose to the sky and soon disappeared behind the clouds. A huge cloud of dust spread across the ground...
From the book of the test participant A.I. Veretennikov ("Next to the atomic bomb", Moscow, 1995). “A curious episode occurred at the command post immediately after the explosion. The neutron background was usually 2-3 readings of a mechanical counter per minute, that is, individual pulses arriving at it were recorded. And the constancy of the background, taking into account statistical fluctuations, was evidence of the safety of one of the most important elements of the "special product" - the neutron fuse (NC) until the very last moment before the explosion. Information about the neutron background Flerov reported aloud to the management every five minutes. When the explosion had already occurred, no one paid any attention to the counter, and Beria looked at his readings and found that the last time, instead of one, he registered 3-4 pulses in both channels at once. He immediately demanded an explanation, what happened to NZ? The GN replied that these were, apparently, pickups on the equipment. And at that moment none of those present knew that one of the first registrations unexpectedly took place here electromagnetic phenomena accompanying nuclear explosion.
At the time of the explosion, a luminous hemisphere appeared in place of the central part, the size of which was 4-5 times the size of the solar disk, and the brightness was several times greater than the sun. After the first flash, the observers took off their glasses and saw a large golden hemisphere of fire, which then turned into a large raging flame, and in the next moment was replaced by a rapidly rising column of smoke and dust ... "
20 minutes after the explosion, two tanks equipped with lead shielding were sent to the center of the field to conduct radiation reconnaissance and inspect the center of the field.
The reconnaissance found that all the buildings of the center were demolished. A funnel 3 meters in diameter and 1.5 meters deep formed in the place of the central tower, the radioactivity exceeded 50,000 microroentgens per second. The soil in the center of the field melted and formed a continuous crust of slag. Civilian buildings and industrial structures were completely or partially destroyed.
As V.I. Zhuchikhin, who left the command post, “saw a picture of horrific destruction: the windows and doors of the mechanical workshop, the equipment warehouse, the FAS and VIA buildings were completely knocked out and mangled. it is clear that the destruction of the houses was of such magnitude that there could be no question of restoration.The leadership of the tests, which included L.P. Beria with his bodyguard - a colonel armed to the teeth (although it was difficult to imagine from whom he was supposed to shoot back), leaving the command post, hugging and kissing, congratulating each other on success.
The next day, August 30, 1949, a trip to the experimental field took place, where a terrible picture of the great battle was presented.
The dosimetric service promptly managed to limit the zones of dangerous radiation conditions. For a period of no more than 15 minutes, it was allowed to drive into a zone limited by a radius of approximately 2 km from the epicenter. But even from this distance, the whole field was clearly visible. One can see planes broken in half or lying on their backs with wheels up, tanks lying on their sides with knocked down turrets, cannons, one of which had its gun carriage in one place, and the barrel was stuck with the breech up in another, the ship's wheelhouse turned into a pile of twisted metal and all ten burned-out Pobeda cars.
The railway and highway bridges were mangled and thrown back to their place by 20-30 m. The cars and cars located on the bridges, half-burned, were scattered across the steppe at a distance of 50-80 m from the installation site.
Residential houses of the urban type and the workshop building were completely destroyed. Panel and log houses at a distance of up to 5 km were completely destroyed. Several power transmission poles were mutilated and torn from their attachment points.
As Academician Yu. Khariton noted in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper on December 8, 1992, the first Soviet atomic charge was made according to the American model with the help of information received from K. Fuchs. According to the academician, when they were awarded government awards to the participants in the Soviet atomic project, Stalin, satisfied that there was no American monopoly in this area, remarked: "If we were late for one or a year and a half, then, probably, we would have tried this charge on ourselves
About the creation of RDS-1, see the website: For advanced - Creation of RDS-1
Since the first nuclear test on July 15, 1945, over 2,051 other nuclear weapons tests have been recorded worldwide.
No other force represents such an absolute destructive action as nuclear weapon. And this kind of weapon quickly becomes even more powerful in the decades after the first test.
The test of a nuclear bomb in 1945 had a yield of 20 kilotons, that is, the bomb had an explosive force of 20,000 tons of TNT. Over the course of 20 years, the US and the USSR tested nuclear weapons with a total mass of more than 10 megatons, or 10 million tons of TNT. For scale, that's at least 500 times more powerful than the first atomic bomb. In order to bring the size of the largest nuclear explosions in history to scale, the data was plotted using Alex Wellerstein's Nukemap, a tool for visualizing the horrific effects of a nuclear explosion in the real world.
In the maps shown, the first explosion ring is a fireball followed by a radiation radius. In the pink radius, almost all the destruction of buildings and with a fatal outcome of 100% are displayed. In the gray radius, stronger buildings will withstand the explosion. In the orange radius, people will suffer third-degree burns and combustible materials will ignite, leading to possible firestorms.
The largest nuclear explosions
Soviet tests 158 and 168
On August 25 and September 19, 1962, less than a month apart, the USSR conducted nuclear tests over the Novaya Zemlya region of Russia, an archipelago in northern Russia near the Arctic Ocean.
No video or photo footage of the tests remains, but both tests involved the use of 10-megaton atomic bombs. These explosions would incinerate everything within 1.77 square miles at ground zero, causing third-degree burns to victims in an area of 1,090 square miles.
Ivy Mike
On November 1, 1952, the United States conducted a test of Ivy Mike over the Marshall Islands. Ivy Mike is the world's first hydrogen bomb and had a yield of 10.4 megatons, 700 times more powerful than the first atomic bomb.
Ivy Mike's explosion was so powerful that it vaporized the island of Elugelab where it was blasted, leaving a 164-foot deep crater in its place.
Castle Romeo
Romeo was the second in a series of nuclear tests conducted by the United States in 1954. All of the explosions took place in Bikini Atoll. Romeo was the third most powerful test of the series and had a yield of around 11 megatons.
Romeo was the first to be tested on a barge in open waters rather than on a reef, as the US quickly ran out of islands on which to test nuclear weapons. The explosion will burn everything within 1.91 square miles.
Soviet Test 123
On October 23, 1961, the Soviet Union conducted nuclear test No. 123 over Novaya Zemlya. Test 123 was a 12.5 megaton nuclear bomb. A bomb this size would incinerate everything within 2.11 square miles, causing third-degree burns to people in an area of 1,309 square miles. This test also left no records.
Castle Yankee
Castle Yankee, the second most powerful of a series of tests, was carried out on May 4, 1954. The bomb had a yield of 13.5 megatons. Four days later, its decay fallout reached Mexico City, a distance of about 7,100 miles.
Castle Bravo
Castle Bravo was carried out on February 28, 1954, was the first of a series of Castle tests and the largest U.S. nuclear explosion of all time.
Bravo was originally envisioned as a 6-megaton explosion. Instead, the bomb produced a 15-megaton explosion. His mushroom reached 114,000 feet in the air.
The US military's miscalculation had consequences in terms of the exposure of about 665 Marshall Islanders and the death from radiation exposure of a Japanese fisherman who was 80 miles from the site of the explosion.
Soviet tests 173, 174 and 147
From August 5 to September 27, 1962, the USSR conducted a series of nuclear tests over Novaya Zemlya. Test 173, 174, 147 and all stand out as the fifth, fourth, and third strongest nuclear explosions in history.
All three explosions produced had a yield of 20 Megatons, or about 1,000 times stronger than Trinity's nuclear bomb. A bomb of this force will destroy everything in its path within three square miles.
Test 219, Soviet Union
On December 24, 1962, the USSR conducted test No. 219, with a capacity of 24.2 megatons, over Novaya Zemlya. A bomb of this strength can burn everything within 3.58 square miles, causing third-degree burns in an area up to 2250 square miles.
Tsar bomb
On October 30, 1961, the USSR detonated the largest nuclear weapon ever tested and created the largest man-made explosion in history. The result of an explosion that is 3,000 times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The flash of light from the explosion was visible 620 miles away.
The Tsar bomb eventually had a yield of between 50 and 58 megatons, twice the size of the second largest nuclear explosion.
A bomb this size would create a 6.4 square mile fireball and be capable of inflicting third-degree burns within 4,080 square miles of the bomb's epicenter.
First atomic bomb
The first atomic explosion was the size of the Tsar Bomb, and the explosion is still considered to be of almost unimaginable size.
This 20-kiloton weapon produces a fireball with a radius of 260m, roughly 5 football fields, according to NukeMap. It is estimated that the bomb would emit lethal radiation 7 miles wide and produce third-degree burns over 12 miles away. If such a bomb were used in lower Manhattan, more than 150,000 people would be killed and the fallout would extend into central Connecticut, according to NukeMap's calculations.
The first atomic bomb was tiny by the standards of a nuclear weapon. But its destructiveness is still very large for perception.
The most terrible weapon created by mankind - nuclear bomb. Here are some facts from the history of testing this terrible invention.
External wiring of the Trinity nuclear device, the first ever test of a nuclear weapon - an atomic bomb. At the time of this photograph, the device was being prepared for its detonation, which took place on July 16, 1945. We can say that the history of testing nuclear bombs began with this photo.
A silhouette of Los Alamos director Robert Oppenheimer overseeing the final assembly of the device at Trinity Proving Ground in July 1945.
Jumbo, a 200-ton steel canister designed to recover the plutonium used in the Trinity test, but the explosives that were originally used were unable to cause chain reaction. In the end, Jumbo was not used to recover plutonium, but it was installed near the epicenter to assess the impact of the explosion. It survived, but its tower has disappeared. 
An expanding fireball and shock wave from the Trinity explosion, captured 0.25 seconds after the explosion on July 16, 1945.
The fireball begins to rise and the world's first atomic mushroom cloud begins to form, pictured nine seconds after the Trinity explosion on July 16, 1945.
The US military watches the explosion during Operation Crossroads Baker, carried out on Bikini Atoll (Marshall Islands) on July 25, 1946. This was the fifth nuclear explosion, after the previous two were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
First test of an underwater atomic bomb explosion, a massive column of water rises from the sea, Bikini Atoll, Pacific Ocean, July 25, 1946.
A huge mushroom cloud rises over Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands on July 25, 1946. The dark spots in the foreground are ships that were placed near the explosion site to test what the atomic bomb could do to a fleet of warships.
On November 16, 1952, a B-36H bomber dropped an atomic bomb over the northern tip of Runit Island in Enewetak Atoll, resulting in a 500 kiloton explosion, part of a test codenamed Ivy.
Operation Greenhouse took place in the spring of 1951, consisting of four explosions at ranges in the Pacific Ocean. This photo of the third test, George, May 9, 1951, the first thermonuclear bomb, 225 kiloton yield.
The photo shows a nuclear ball (one millisecond after the explosion). During the Tumbler-Snapper test in 1952, a nuclear bomb was planted 90 meters above the Nevada desert.
Complete destruction of house number 1, located at a distance of 1070 meters from the epicenter, destroyed by a nuclear explosion, March 17, 1953, Yucca Flat at the Nevada test site. The time from the first to the last image is 2.3 seconds. The camera was in a 5 cm lead sheath that protected it from radiation. The only source The light was itself an explosion from a nuclear bomb.
1 photo. During the Doorstep test, conducted during the major operation Upshot-Knothole, dummies are sitting at the table of the dining room of the house number two, March 15, 1953.
2 photos. After the explosion, mannequins lie scattered around the room, their "meal" was interrupted by an atomic explosion on March 17, 1953.
1 photo. A mannequin lying on a bed, the second floor of building number 2, is ready to experience the effects of an atomic explosion, at a test site near Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 15, 1953, at a distance of 1.5 miles, there is a 90-meter-high steel tower on which a bomb will be detonated . The purpose of the tests is to show civil defense officials what would happen in an American city if it were subjected to an atomic attack.
1 photo. Mannequins, representing a typical American family, gathered in the living room of house number 2 on March 15, 1953.
Operation Upshot-Knothole, BADGER Event, 23-kiloton yield, April 18, 1953, Nevada Test Site.
US nuclear artillery test, test conducted by the US military in Nevada on May 25, 1953. A 280mm nuclear projectile was fired 10 km into the desert from the M65 Atomic Cannon, the detonation occurred in the air, about 152 meters above the ground, with a yield of 15 kilotons. 
H-bomb test explosion during Operation Redwing over Bikini Atoll, May 20, 1956.
The flash of an exploding nuclear warhead by an air-to-air missile is shown as bright sun in the eastern sky at 7:30 am on July 19, 1957 at the Indian Air Force Base, about 30 miles from the point of explosion.
The photo shows the tail of the airship navy United States, the Stokes cloud is shown below in test site Nevada August 7th, 1957 The airship was in free flight over five miles from ground zero. The airship was unmanned and was used as a dummy.
Observers view atmospheric phenomena during the Hardtack I thermonuclear bomb test, Pacific Ocean, 1958.
2 photos from a series of over 100 nuclear test explosions in Nevada and Pacific Ocean in 1962
The Fishbowl Bluegill bombing, a 400-kiloton atomic bomb explodes in the atmosphere, 30 miles above the Pacific Ocean (photo above), October 1962.
Another photo from a series of over 100 nuclear test explosions in Nevada and the Pacific Ocean in 1962
The Sedan crater was formed with a 100 kiloton bomb buried under 193 meters of earth, displacing 12 million tons of earth in the process. Crater 97 meters deep and 390 meters in diameter, July 6, 1962
(3 photos) Explosion of the French atomic bomb on the Mururoa Atoll, French Polynesia. 1971
The history of nuclear bomb tests in the photo
In the second half of the 40s, the leadership of the country of the Soviets was quite concerned that America already had weapons unprecedented in their destructive power, and Soviet Union- not yet. Immediately after the end of the Second World War, the country was extremely afraid of the superiority of the United States, whose plans were not only to weaken the position of the USSR in a constant arms race, but, perhaps, even to destroy it through a nuclear strike. In our country, the fate of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was perfectly remembered.
In order for the threat not to constantly hang over the country, it was necessary to urgently create our own, powerful and frightening weapon. own atomic bomb. It helped a lot that in their research, Soviet scientists could use the data obtained in the occupation on German V-rockets, as well as apply other research obtained from Soviet intelligence in the West. For example, very important data was secretly transferred, risking their lives, by American scientists themselves, who understood the need for a nuclear balance.
After the terms of reference were approved, large-scale activities began to create an atomic bomb.
The leadership of the project was entrusted to the outstanding atomic scientist Igor Kurchatov, and a specially created committee that was supposed to control the process was headed.
In the process of research, a need arose for a special research organization, on the sites of which this “product” would be designed and tested. The research carried out by Laboratory N2 of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR required a remote and preferably deserted place. In other words, it was necessary to create a special center for the development of nuclear weapons. Moreover, interestingly, the development was carried out simultaneously in two versions: using plutonium and uranium-235, heavy and light fuel, respectively. Another feature: the bomb had to be of a certain size:
- not more than 5 meters long;
- with a diameter of not more than 1.5 meters;
- weighing no more than 5 tons.
Such strict parameters of the deadly weapon were explained simply: the bomb was developed for a specific aircraft model: the TU-4, the hatch of which did not allow larger objects to pass through.
The first Soviet nuclear weapon had the abbreviation RDS-1. Unofficial transcripts were different, from: "The Motherland gives Stalin", to: "Russia makes itself", but in official documents it was interpreted as: "Jet engine" C "". In the summer of 1949, the most important event for the USSR and the whole world took place: in Kazakhstan, at the Semipalatinsk test site, a test of the created deadly weapon was passed. It happened at 7.00 local time and at 4.00 Moscow time.
It happened on a tower 37 and a half meters high, which was installed in the middle of a twenty-kilometer field. The power of the explosion was 20 kilotons of TNT.
This event once and for all ended the nuclear dominance of the United States, and the USSR began to proudly be called the second, after the United States, nuclear power in the world.
