On October 30, 1961, the most powerful explosion in the history of mankind thundered at the Soviet nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya. The nuclear mushroom rose to a height of 67 kilometers, and the diameter of the "cap" of this mushroom was 95 kilometers. The shock wave circled three times Earth(and the blast wave demolished wooden buildings at a distance of several hundred kilometers from the landfill). The flash of the explosion was visible from a distance of a thousand kilometers, despite the fact that thick clouds hung over Novaya Zemlya. For nearly an hour, radio communications were out of service throughout the Arctic. The power of the explosion, according to various sources, was from 50 to 57 megatons (million tons of TNT).
However, as Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev joked, the bomb power was not brought to 100 megatons, only because in this case all the glass would have been knocked out in Moscow. But, in every joke there is a grain of joke - it was originally planned to detonate exactly a 100 megaton bomb. And the explosion on Novaya Zemlya convincingly proved that the creation of a bomb with a capacity of at least 100 megatons, at least 200, is a completely feasible task. But 50 megatons is almost ten times the power of all the ammunition spent during the entire Second World war by all participating countries. In addition, in the case of testing a product with a capacity of 100 megatons, only a melted crater would remain from the landfill on Novaya Zemlya (and from most of this island). In Moscow, the glasses would most likely have survived, but in Murmansk they could have taken off.
Model of a hydrogen bomb. Historical and Memorial Museum of Nuclear Weapons in Sarov
The device, detonated at an altitude of 4200 meters above sea level on October 30, 1961, went down in history under the name "Tsar Bomba". Another not official name- "Kuz'kina Mother". And the official name of this hydrogen bomb was not so loud - a modest product AN602. This miracle weapon had no military significance - not in tons of TNT equivalent, but in ordinary metric tons, the "product" weighed 26 tons and it would be problematic to deliver it to the "addressee". It was a show of strength - clear proof that the Land of the Soviets is capable of creating weapons mass destruction any power. What made the leadership of our country take such an unprecedented step? Of course, nothing more than the aggravation of relations with the United States. More recently, it seemed that the United States and Soviet Union reached an understanding on all issues - in September 1959, Khrushchev paid an official visit to the United States, and a return visit to Moscow by President Dwight Eisenhower was also planned. But on May 1, 1960, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down over Soviet territory. In April 1961, the American special services organized the landing of well-trained and trained Cuban immigrants in Cuba in the Bay of Playa Giron (this adventure ended with a convincing victory for Fidel Castro). In Europe, the great powers could not decide on the status of West Berlin. As a result, on August 13, 1961, the capital of Germany was blocked by the famous Berlin Wall. Finally, in that 1961, the United States deployed PGM-19 Jupiter missiles in Turkey - European part Russia (including Moscow) was within the range of these missiles (a year later, the Soviet Union would deploy missiles in Cuba and the famous Caribbean Crisis would begin). This is not to mention the fact that there was no parity in the number of nuclear charges and their carriers at that time between the Soviet Union and America - we could only oppose 6,000 American warheads with only 300. So, the demonstration of thermonuclear power was not at all superfluous in the current situation.
Soviet short film about the test of the Tsar Bomba
There is a popular myth that the superbomb was developed by order of Khrushchev all in the same 1961 in a record short time- in just 112 days. In fact, the bomb has been in development since 1954. And in 1961, the developers simply brought the existing "product" to the required power. In parallel, the Tupolev Design Bureau was engaged in the modernization of Tu-16 and Tu-95 aircraft for new weapons. According to initial calculations, the weight of the bomb should have been at least 40 tons, but the aircraft designers explained to the nuclear scientists that this moment there are no carriers for a product with such a weight and cannot be. The nuclear workers have promised to reduce the weight of the bomb to an acceptable 20 tons. True, such a weight and such dimensions required complete rework bomb bays, mountings, bomb bays.
Hydrogen bomb explosion
Work on the bomb was carried out by a group of young nuclear physicists under the leadership of I.V. Kurchatov. This group also included Andrei Sakharov, who at that time did not even think about dissidence. Moreover, he was one of the leading product developers.
This power was achieved thanks to the use of a multistage design - a uranium charge with a capacity of "only" one and a half megatons launched a nuclear reaction in a second stage charge with a capacity of 50 megatons. Without changing the dimensions of the bomb, it was possible to make it three-stage (this is already over 100 megatons). Theoretically, the number of stage charges could be unlimited. The bomb design was unique for its time.
Khrushchev rushed the developers - in October, in the newly built Kremlin Palace of Congresses, the XXII Congress of the CPSU broke off and announce the news about the powerful explosion in the history of mankind it should be from the rostrum of the congress. And on October 30, October 30, 1961, Khrushchev received a long-awaited telegram signed by the Minister of Medium Machine Building E.P. Slavsky and Marshal of the Soviet Union K. S. Moskalenko (test leaders):
"Moscow. Kremlin. Nikita Khrushchev.The test on Novaya Zemlya was successful. The safety of the testers and the surrounding population is ensured. The polygon and all the participants completed the task of the Motherland. We return to the exit. "
The explosion of Tsar Bomba almost immediately served as fertile ground for different kinds myths. Some of them were distributed ... by the official seal. So, for example, "Pravda" called "Tsar-Bomba" just yesterday atomic weapons and argued that more powerful charges had already been created. Not without rumors of a self-sustaining thermonuclear reaction in the atmosphere. The decrease in the power of the explosion, according to some, was caused by the fear of splitting earth crust or ... call thermonuclear reaction in the oceans.
But, be that as it may, a year later, during the Cuban missile crisis, the United States still had an overwhelming superiority in the number of nuclear warheads. But they did not dare to apply them.
In addition, the mega-explosion is believed to have helped to get the ball rolling in the three-Wednesday nuclear test ban negotiations that have been under way in Geneva since the late 1950s. In 1959-60, all the nuclear powers, with the exception of France, accepted a unilateral test waiver while these negotiations were ongoing. But the reasons that forced the Soviet Union not to comply with its obligations, we talked about below. After the explosion on Novaya Zemlya, negotiations resumed. And on October 10, 1963 in Moscow, the "Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, outer space and under water. " As long as this Treaty is respected, the Soviet Tsar Bomba will remain the most powerful explosive device in human history.
Modern computer reconstruction
Ivy Mike - The first atmospheric tests of a hydrogen bomb conducted by the United States on Enewetak Atoll on November 1, 1952.
65 years ago, the Soviet Union detonated its first thermonuclear bomb. How does this weapon work, what can it do and what it cannot? On August 12, 1953, the first "practical" thermonuclear bomb was detonated in the USSR. We will tell you about the history of its creation and figure out whether it is true that such an ammunition almost does not pollute the environment, but can destroy the world.
Idea thermonuclear weapons, where the nuclei of atoms merge, rather than fission, as in the atomic bomb, appeared no later than 1941. It crossed the minds of physicists Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller. Around the same time, they became members of the Manhattan Project and helped create the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It turned out to be much more difficult to design thermonuclear ammunition.
To roughly understand how thermo nuclear bomb more complicated than a nuclear power plant, it is also possible due to the fact that operating nuclear power plants have long been commonplace, and operating and practical thermonuclear power plants is still science fiction.
To atomic nuclei merged with each other, they must be heated to millions of degrees. The Americans patented the scheme of a device that would allow this to be done in 1946 (the project was unofficially called Super), but they remembered about it only three years later, when a nuclear bomb was successfully tested in the USSR.
President of the U.S.A Harry Truman said that the Soviet dash must be answered with "the so-called hydrogen, or superbomb".
By 1951, the Americans had assembled the device and tested it under codename"George". The design was a torus - in other words, a donut - with heavy isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium. They were chosen because such nuclei are easier to merge than ordinary hydrogen nuclei. A nuclear bomb served as the fuse. The explosion compressed deuterium and tritium, they merged, gave a flux of fast neutrons and ignited the uranium plate. In an ordinary atomic bomb, it does not fission: there are only slow neutrons that cannot make a stable isotope of uranium fission. Although the energy of nuclear fusion accounted for about 10% of the total energy of the explosion of "George", the "ignition" of uranium-238 made it possible to raise the explosion power twice as high as usual, to 225 kilotons.
Due to the additional uranium, the explosion turned out to be twice as powerful as with a conventional atomic bomb. But thermonuclear fusion accounted for only 10% of the released energy: tests have shown that hydrogen nuclei are not compressed strongly enough.
Then the mathematician Stanislav Ulam proposed a different approach - a two-stage nuclear fuse. His idea was to place a plutonium rod in the "hydrogen" zone of the device. The explosion of the first fuse "set fire" plutonium, two shock waves and two streams of X-rays collided - the pressure and temperature jumped enough to start thermonuclear fusion. The new device was tested on Enewetok Atoll in Pacific in 1952 - the explosive power of the bomb was already ten megatons in TNT equivalent.
Nevertheless, this device was also unsuitable for use as a military weapon.
For hydrogen nuclei to merge, the distance between them must be minimal, so the deuterium and tritium were cooled to liquid state, almost to absolute zero. This required a huge cryogenic plant. The second thermonuclear device, in fact an enlarged version of the "George", weighed 70 tons - you can't drop that from an airplane.
The USSR began to develop a thermonuclear bomb later: the first scheme was proposed by Soviet developers only in 1949. It was supposed to use lithium deuteride. It is a metal, a solid, it does not need to be liquefied, and therefore a bulky refrigerator, as in the American version, was no longer required. It is no less important that lithium-6, when bombarded with neutrons from the explosion, produced helium and tritium, which further simplifies the further fusion of nuclei.
The RDS-6s bomb was ready in 1953. Unlike American and modern thermonuclear devices, there was no plutonium rod in it. This scheme is known as "puff": layers of lithium deuteride were interspersed with uranium layers. On August 12, RDS-6s was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site.
The power of the explosion was 400 kilotons in TNT equivalent - 25 times less than in the second attempt of the Americans. But the RDS-6s could be dropped from the air. The same bomb was going to be used on intercontinental ballistic missiles... And already in 1955, the USSR improved its thermonuclear brainchild by equipping it with a plutonium rod.
Today almost everyone thermonuclear devices- apparently, even the North Korean ones - represent a cross between the early Soviet and American models... They all use lithium deuteride as fuel and ignite it with a two-stage nuclear detonator.
As is known from the leaks, even the most modern American thermonuclear warhead, the W88, is similar to the RDS-6c: layers of lithium deuteride are interspersed with uranium.
The difference is that modern thermonuclear munitions are not multi-megaton monsters like Tsar Bomba, but systems with a capacity of hundreds of kilotons, like the RDS-6s. No one has megaton warheads in their arsenals, since, militarily, a dozen less powerful charges are more valuable than one strong one: this allows you to hit more targets.
Technicians work with the American W80 thermonuclear warhead
What a thermonuclear bomb cannot
Hydrogen is an extremely widespread element; it is also sufficient in the Earth's atmosphere.
At one time it was rumored that a sufficiently powerful thermonuclear explosion could start a chain reaction and all the air on our planet would burn out. But this is a myth.
Not only gaseous, but also liquid hydrogen is not dense enough to start thermonuclear fusion. It needs to be compressed and heated by a nuclear explosion, preferably c different sides, as is done with a two-stage fuse. There are no such conditions in the atmosphere, so self-sustaining nuclear fusion reactions are impossible there.
This is not the only misconception about thermonuclear weapons. It is often said that an explosion is "cleaner" than a nuclear explosion: they say, when hydrogen nuclei merge, "fragments" - dangerous short-lived nuclei of atoms that give Nuclear pollution, - turns out to be less than in the case of fission of uranium nuclei.
This delusion is based on the fact that in a thermonuclear explosion most of energy is supposedly released due to the fusion of nuclei. It is not true. Yes, the Tsar Bomba was like that, but only because its uranium "jacket" for testing was replaced with a lead one. Modern two-stage fuses lead to significant radioactive contamination.
The zone of the possible total defeat"Tsar-bomb", marked on the map of Paris. Red circle - zone of complete destruction (radius 35 km). The yellow circle is the size of the fireball (radius 3.5 km).
True, there is still a grain of truth in the myth of a "clean" bomb. Take the best American thermonuclear warhead, the W88. When it explodes at an optimal altitude above the city, the area of severe destruction will practically coincide with the zone of radioactive damage that is life-threatening. The number of deaths from radiation sickness will be vanishingly small: people will die from the explosion itself, not radiation.
Another myth says that thermonuclear weapons are capable of destroying the entire human civilization, and even life on Earth. This is also practically impossible. The energy of the explosion is distributed in three dimensions, therefore, with an increase in the power of an ammunition by a thousand times, the radius of the destructive effect increases by only ten times - a megaton warhead has a radius of destruction only ten times greater than a tactical, kiloton one.
66 million years ago, an asteroid impact led to the extinction of most land animals and plants. The impact power was about 100 million megatons, which is 10 thousand times more than the total power of all thermonuclear arsenals of the Earth. 790 thousand years ago, an asteroid collided with the planet, the impact was a million megatons, but no traces of even a moderate extinction (including our genus Homo) happened after that. And life in general, and the person is much stronger than they seem.
The truth about thermonuclear weapons is not as popular as the myths. Today it is as follows: thermonuclear arsenals of compact medium-power warheads provide a fragile strategic balance, because of which no one can freely iron other countries of the world with atomic weapons. Fear of a thermonuclear response is more than a sufficient deterrent.
At the end of the 30s of the last century, the laws of fission and decay were already discovered in Europe, and the hydrogen bomb from the category of fantasy passed into reality. Development history nuclear energy interesting and still represents an exciting competition between the scientific potential of the countries: Nazi Germany, the USSR and the USA. The most powerful bomb any state dreamed of owning was not only a weapon, but also a powerful political tool. The country that had it in its arsenal actually became omnipotent and could dictate its own rules.
The hydrogen bomb has its own history of creation, which is based on physical laws, namely the thermonuclear process. Initially, it was incorrectly called atomic, and the reason for that was illiteracy. The scientist Bethe, who later became a laureate Nobel Prize, worked on artificial source energy - by fission of uranium. This time was the peak scientific activities many physicists, and among them there was such an opinion that scientific secrets should not exist at all, since initially the laws of science are international.
Theoretically, the hydrogen bomb was invented, but now, with the help of designers, it had to acquire technical forms. It only remained to pack it in a certain shell and test it for power. There are two scientists whose names will forever be associated with the creation of this powerful weapon: in the United States, this is Edward Teller, and in the USSR, Andrei Sakharov.
In the United States, a physicist began to study the thermonuclear problem back in 1942. By order of Harry Truman, at that time the President of the United States, the best scientists in the country were working on this problem, they were creating a fundamentally new weapon of destruction. Moreover, the government's order was for a bomb with a capacity of at least a million tons of TNT. The hydrogen bomb was created by Teller and showed to humanity in Hiroshima and Nagasaki its limitless, but destructive abilities.
A bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, which weighed 4.5 tons with a uranium content of 100 kg. This explosion corresponded to nearly 12,500 tons of TNT. The Japanese city of Nagasaki was erased by a plutonium bomb of the same mass, but already equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT.
The future Soviet academician A. Sakharov in 1948, based on his research, presented the design of a hydrogen bomb under the name RDS-6. His research went along two branches: the first was called "puff" (RDS-6s), and its feature was the atomic charge, which was surrounded by layers of heavy and light elements. The second branch is a "pipe" or (RDS-6t), in which the plutonium bomb was in liquid deuterium. Subsequently, very important discovery, which proved that the "pipe" direction is a dead end.
The principle of operation of a hydrogen bomb is as follows: first, a charge, which initiates a thermonuclear reaction, explodes inside the HB shell, as a result of which a neutron flash occurs. In this case, the process is accompanied by the release high temperature, which is needed for further Neutrons begin to bombard the insert made of lithium deuteride, and it, in turn, under the direct action of neutrons splits into two elements: tritium and helium. The atomic fuse used forms the constituents necessary for the synthesis to proceed in the already activated bomb. This is such a complicated principle of the hydrogen bomb. After this preliminary action, a thermonuclear reaction begins in a mixture of deuterium and tritium. At this time, the temperature in the bomb increases more and more, and everything is involved in the synthesis. large quantity hydrogen. If you follow the time of these reactions, then the speed of their action can be characterized as instantaneous.
Subsequently, scientists began to use not the fusion of nuclei, but their fission. Fission of one ton of uranium creates energy equivalent to 18 Mt. Such a bomb has tremendous power. The most powerful bomb created by mankind belonged to the USSR. She even got into the Guinness Book of Records. Its blast wave was equal to 57 (approximately) megatons of TNT. It was blown up in 1961 in the archipelago area New earth.
The atomic bomb and hydrogen bombs are powerful weapon, which uses nuclear reactions as a source of explosive energy. Scientists first developed nuclear weapons technology during World War II.
Atomic bombs were used only twice in real war, and both times by the United States against Japan at the end of World War II. After the war, there followed a period of proliferation of nuclear weapons, and during “ cold war"The United States and the Soviet Union fought for dominance in the global nuclear arms race.
What is a hydrogen bomb, how it works, the principle of operation of a thermonuclear charge, and when the first tests were carried out in the USSR - is written below.
How the atomic bomb works
After the German physicists Otto Hahn, Lisa Meitner and Fritz Strassmann discovered the phenomenon of nuclear fission in Berlin in 1938, it became possible to create weapons of extraordinary power.
When an atom of a radioactive material splits into lighter atoms, a sudden, powerful release of energy occurs.
The discovery of nuclear fission opened up the possibility of using nuclear technology, including weapons.
An atomic bomb is a weapon that receives its explosive energy only from the fission reaction.
The principle of operation of a hydrogen bomb or thermonuclear charge is based on a combination of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.
Nuclear fusion is another type of reaction in which lighter atoms combine to release energy. For example, as a result of a nuclear fusion reaction, a helium atom is formed from the atoms of deuterium and tritium, with the release of energy.
Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project - codename American project to develop a practical atomic bomb during World War II. The Manhattan Project began as a response to the efforts of German scientists working on weapons that use nuclear technology, since the 1930s.
On December 28, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the creation of the Manhattan Project to bring together various scientists and military officials working on nuclear research.
Much of the work was done in Los Alamos, New Mexico, under the direction of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.
July 16, 1945 in a remote desert location near Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first atomic bomb, equivalent in power to 20 kilotons of TNT, has been successfully tested. The explosion of a hydrogen bomb created a huge mushroom-like cloud about 150 meters high and opened the atomic age.
The only photo of the first in the world atomic explosion by American physicist Jack Aebi Kid and Fat Man
Scientists from Los Alamos have developed two different types atomic bombs by 1945 - a uranium-based project called "Little Boy" and a plutonium-based weapon called "Fat Man."
While the war in Europe ended in April, fighting v Pacific region continued between Japanese troops and US troops.
In late July, President Harry Truman called for Japan's surrender in the Potsdam Declaration. The declaration promised "swift and complete destruction" if Japan had not surrendered.
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb from a B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay in the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
The explosion of "Malysh" corresponded to 13 kilotons of TNT, razed to the ground five square miles of the city and instantly killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands of people will later die from radiation exposure.
The Japanese continued to fight and the United States dropped a second atomic bomb three days later in the city of Nagasaki. The Fat Man explosion killed about 40,000 people.
Citing the destructive power of "the newest and most brutal bomb," the Japanese emperor Hirohito announced his country's surrender on August 15, ending World War II.
Cold war
In the postwar years, the United States was the only country with nuclear weapons. At first, the USSR did not have enough scientific developments and raw materials to create nuclear warheads.
But, thanks to the efforts of Soviet scientists, intelligence data and the discovered regional sources of uranium in Eastern Europe On August 29, 1949, the USSR tested its first nuclear bomb. The hydrogen bomb device was developed by Academician Sakharov.
From atomic weapons to thermonuclear
The United States responded in 1950 by launching a program to develop more advanced thermonuclear weapons. The arms race of the Cold War began, and nuclear tests and research became widespread targets for several countries, especially the United States and the Soviet Union.
this year, the United States conducted an explosion thermonuclear bomb with a capacity of 10 megatons in TNT equivalent
1955 - The USSR responded with its first thermonuclear test - only 1.6 megatons. But the main successes of the Soviet military-industrial complex were ahead. In 1958 alone, the USSR tested 36 nuclear bombs of different class... But nothing that the Soviet Union has experienced compares to the Tsar - the bomb.
Test and first explosion of a hydrogen bomb in the USSR
On the morning of October 30, 1961, a Soviet Tu-95 bomber took off from the Olenya airfield on the Kola Peninsula in the far north of Russia.
The plane was a specially modified version that entered service a few years ago - a huge four-engine monster tasked with carrying the Soviet nuclear arsenal.
Modified version TU-95 "Bear" specially prepared for the first test of the hydrogen Tsar-bomb in the USSR The Tu-95 carried a huge 58-megaton bomb beneath it, a device too large to fit inside the bomb bay of the aircraft, where such ammunition was usually transported. The bomb, 8 m long, had a diameter of about 2.6 m and weighed more than 27 tons and remained in history with the name Tsar Bomba - "Tsar Bomba".
The Tsar Bomb was not an ordinary nuclear bomb. This was the result of the strenuous efforts of Soviet scientists to create the most powerful nuclear weapon.
Tupolev reached his target point - Novaya Zemlya, a sparsely populated archipelago in the Barents Sea, over the frozen northern edges of the USSR.
Tsar Bomba exploded at 11:32 Moscow time. The results of testing a hydrogen bomb in the USSR showed the whole bouquet damaging factors this type of weapon. Before answering the question of which is more powerful, an atomic or a hydrogen bomb, you should know that the power of the latter is measured in megatons, and for atomic ones - in kilotons.
Light emission
In the blink of an eye, the bomb created a fireball seven kilometers wide. The fireball throbbed with the power of its own shock wave... The flash could be seen thousands of kilometers away - in Alaska, Siberia and Northern Europe.
Shock wave
The consequences of the explosion of the hydrogen bomb on Novaya Zemlya were catastrophic. In the village of Severny, about 55 km from Ground Zero, all houses were completely destroyed. It was reported that on Soviet territory in hundreds of kilometers from the explosion zone everything was damaged - houses were destroyed, roofs fell, doors were damaged, windows were destroyed.
The radius of action of a hydrogen bomb is several hundred kilometers.
Depending on the power of the charge and the damaging factors.
The sensors recorded a blast wave that wrapped around the Earth not once, not twice, but three times. The sound wave was recorded off Dikson Island at a distance of about 800 km.
Electromagnetic pulse
For more than an hour, radio communications were disrupted throughout the Arctic.
Penetrating radiation
The crew received a certain dose of radiation.
Radioactive contamination of the area
The explosion of the Tsar Bomb on Novaya Zemlya turned out to be surprisingly "clean". The testers arrived at the blast point two hours later. The radiation level in this place did not pose a great danger - no more than 1 mR / hour within a radius of only 2-3 km. The reasons were the peculiarities of the design of the bomb and the execution of the explosion at a sufficiently large distance from the surface.
Heat radiation
Despite the fact that the carrier aircraft, covered with a special light and heat-reflecting paint, went 45 km away at the moment the bomb exploded, it returned to the base with significant thermal damage to the skin. Have unprotected person the radiation would cause third-degree burns up to 100 km away.
 |
The mushroom after the explosion is visible at a distance of 160 km, the diameter of the cloud at the time of the photo is 56 km |
 |
Flash from the explosion of the Tsar Bomb, about 8 km in diameter |
How the hydrogen bomb works
Hydrogen bomb device. The primary stage acts as a switch-trigger. The fission reaction of plutonium in the trigger initiates a thermonuclear fusion reaction in the secondary stage, at which the temperature inside the bomb instantly reaches 300 million ° C. A thermonuclear explosion occurs. The first test of the hydrogen bomb shocked global community its destructive power.
Nuclear test site explosion video
The explosion took place in 1961. Within a radius of several hundred kilometers from the landfill, a hasty evacuation of people took place, since the scientists calculated that all houses, without exception, would be destroyed. But no one expected such an effect. The blast wave circled the planet three times. The polygon remained a "blank slate", all the hills disappeared on it. Buildings turned to sand in a second. A terrible explosion was heard within a radius of 800 kilometers.
If you think that the atomic warhead is the most terrible weapon of humanity, then you do not know about the hydrogen bomb yet. We decided to correct this oversight and talk about what it is. We have already talked about and.
A little about the terminology and principles of work in pictures
Understanding what a nuclear warhead looks like and why, it is necessary to consider the principle of its operation, based on the fission reaction. First, a detonation occurs in an atomic bomb. The shell contains isotopes of uranium and plutonium. They break up into particles, capturing neutrons. Then one atom is destroyed and the fission of the rest is initiated. This is done using a chain process. In the end, the nuclear reaction itself begins. The parts of the bomb become one whole. The charge begins to exceed the critical mass. With the help of such a structure, energy is released and an explosion occurs.
By the way, a nuclear bomb is also called an atomic bomb. And the hydrogen one was called thermonuclear. Therefore, the question of how an atomic bomb differs from a nuclear one is essentially incorrect. This is the same. The difference between a nuclear bomb and a thermonuclear one is not only in the name.
A thermonuclear reaction is not based on a fission reaction, but on the compression of heavy nuclei. A nuclear warhead is a detonator or fuse for a hydrogen bomb. In other words, imagine a huge barrel of water. An atomic rocket is immersed in it. Water is a heavy liquid. Here the proton with sound is replaced in the hydrogen nucleus by two elements - deuterium and tritium:
- Deuterium is one proton and one neutron. Their mass is twice as heavy as hydrogen;
- Tritium is made up of one proton and two neutrons. They are three times heavier than hydrogen.
Thermonuclear bomb tests
After the end of World War II, the race between America and the USSR began and the world community realized that a nuclear or hydrogen bomb was more powerful. Destructive force atomic weapons began to attract each of the parties. The United States was the first to make and test a nuclear bomb. But it soon became clear that she could not have large sizes... Therefore, it was decided to try to make a thermonuclear warhead. Here again America succeeded. The Soviets decided not to lose the race and tested a compact but powerful rocket that could even be transported on a regular Tu-16 aircraft. Then everyone understood the difference between a nuclear bomb and a hydrogen one.
For example, the first American thermonuclear warhead was as tall as a three-story building. It could not be delivered by small transport. But then, according to the developments of the USSR, the dimensions were reduced. When analyzed, it can be concluded that this terrible destruction was not all that great. In TNT equivalent, the impact force was only a few tens of kilotons. Therefore, buildings were destroyed in only two cities, and the sound of a nuclear bomb was heard in the rest of the country. If it were a hydrogen missile, all of Japan would be completely destroyed with just one warhead.
A nuclear bomb with too strong a charge may explode unintentionally. A chain reaction will start and an explosion will occur. Considering the difference between nuclear atomic and hydrogen bombs, it is worth noting this point. After all, a thermonuclear warhead can be made of any power without fear of spontaneous detonation.
This interested Khrushchev, who ordered the most powerful hydrogen warhead in the world to be made and thus come close to winning the race. He found 100 megatons optimal. Soviet scientists did their best and they managed to invest in 50 megatons. Tests began on the island of Novaya Zemlya, where there was a military training ground. Until now, Tsar Bomba is called the largest charge exploded on the planet.
The explosion took place in 1961. Within a radius of several hundred kilometers from the landfill, a hasty evacuation of people took place, since the scientists calculated that all houses, without exception, would be destroyed. But no one expected such an effect. The blast wave circled the planet three times. The polygon remained a "blank slate", all the hills disappeared on it. Buildings turned to sand in a second. A terrible explosion was heard within a radius of 800 kilometers. The fireball from the use of such a warhead as the universal runic bomb destroyer in Japan was only visible in cities. But from a hydrogen rocket, it rose 5 kilometers in diameter. A mushroom of dust, radiation and soot has grown 67 kilometers. According to scientists, its cap was a hundred kilometers in diameter. Just imagine what would have happened if the explosion had occurred within the city limits.
Modern dangers of using the hydrogen bomb
We have already examined the difference between an atomic bomb and a thermonuclear one. Now imagine what the consequences of the explosion would be if the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were hydrogen with a thematic equivalent. There would be no trace of Japan.
According to the results of the tests, scientists have made a conclusion about the consequences of a thermonuclear bomb. Some people think that a hydrogen warhead is cleaner, that is, not actually radioactive. This is due to the fact that people hear the name "water" and underestimate its dire impact on the environment.
As we have already figured out, the hydrogen warhead is based on huge amount radioactive substances. A rocket without a uranium charge can be made, but so far this has not been applied in practice. The process itself will be very complex and costly. Therefore, the fusion reaction is diluted with uranium and a huge explosion power is obtained. The radioactive fallout that inexorably falls on the drop target is increased by 1000%. They will harm the health of even those who are tens of thousands of kilometers from the epicenter. When detonated, a huge fireball is created. Anything that falls within its radius of action is destroyed. Scorched earth can be uninhabited for decades. On a vast territory, absolutely nothing will grow. And knowing the strength of the charge, according to a certain formula, you can theoretically calculate the infected area.
Also worth mentioning about such an effect as nuclear winter. This concept is even worse than destroyed cities and hundreds of thousands human lives... Not only will the dump site be destroyed, but virtually the entire world. At first, only one territory will lose its inhabited status. But there will be a release into the atmosphere radioactive substance which will reduce the brightness of the sun. This will all mix with dust, smoke, soot and create a veil. It will spread throughout the planet. The crops in the fields will be destroyed for several decades to come. Such an effect will provoke hunger on Earth. The population will immediately decrease by several times. And the nuclear winter looks more than real. Indeed, in the history of mankind, and more specifically, in 1816, a similar case was known after a powerful volcanic eruption. The planet was then a year without summer.
Skeptics who do not believe in such a combination of circumstances can convince themselves with the calculations of scientists:
- When on Earth will happen cooling by a degree, no one will notice. But this will affect the amount of precipitation.
- In autumn there will be a cold snap of 4 degrees. Due to the lack of rain, crop failures are possible. Hurricanes will start even where they have never been.
- When temperatures drop a few more degrees, the planet will have its first year without summer.
- This will be followed by a small glacial period... The temperature drops by 40 degrees. Even in a short time, it will become destructive for the planet. Crop failures and extinction of people living in the northern zones will be observed on Earth.
- After the ice age will come. The reflection of the sun's rays will occur without reaching the surface of the earth. Due to this, the air temperature will reach a critical level. Cultures and trees will stop growing on the planet, water will freeze. This will lead to the extinction of most of the population.
- Those who survive will not survive the last period - an irreversible cold snap. This option is quite sad. He will be the real end of humanity. The earth will turn into new planet, unsuitable for the habitation of a human being.
Now about one more danger. As soon as Russia and the United States emerged from the Cold War stage, new threat... If you have heard about who Kim Jong Il is, then you understand that he will not stop there. This rocket lover, tyrant and ruler North Korea in one bottle, can easily provoke a nuclear conflict. He talks about the hydrogen bomb all the time and notes that there are already warheads in his part of the country. Fortunately, no one has seen them live yet. Russia, America, as well as closest neighbors - South Korea and Japan are very concerned about even such hypothetical claims. Therefore, we hope that North Korea's know-how and technologies will remain at an insufficient level for a long time to destroy the whole world.
For reference. Dozens of bombs lie at the bottom of the world's oceans, which were lost during transportation. And in Chernobyl, which is not so far from us, huge reserves of uranium are still stored.
It is worth considering whether such consequences can be tolerated for the sake of testing a hydrogen bomb. And, if a global conflict occurs between the countries possessing these weapons, there will be no states themselves, no people, or nothing at all on the planet, the Earth will turn into clear sheet... And if we consider how a nuclear bomb differs from a thermonuclear one, the main point can be called the number of destruction, as well as the subsequent effect.
Now a little conclusion. We figured out that a nuclear and an atomic bomb are one and the same. And also, it is the basis for a thermonuclear warhead. But using neither one nor the other is not recommended, even for testing. The sound from the explosion and what the consequences look like are not the worst. This threatens a nuclear winter, the death of hundreds of thousands of residents at one moment and numerous consequences for humanity. Although there are differences between charges such as atomic and nuclear bombs, the action of both is destructive to all living things.
