#Bomba nuclear verification#

In theory, the bomb would have had a yield in excess of 100 Mt (418 PJ) if it had included a uranium-238 fusion tamper but, because only one bomb was built to completion, that capability has never been demonstrated. As they had the instrumental data and access to the test site, their yield figure has been accepted as more accurate. The bhangmeter results and other data suggested the bomb yielded around 58 Mt (243 PJ), which was the accepted yield in technical literature until 1991, when Soviet scientists revealed that their instruments indicated a yield of 50 Mt (209 PJ). reconnaissance aircraft named 'Speed Light Alpha' monitored the blast, coming close enough to have its antiradiation paint scorched. The Boeing KC-135A-BN 55-3121 was said to be the fourth KC-135 built.

The detonation was intended to be secret, but was detected by United States intelligence agencies, via a KC-135A aircraft (Operation SpeedLight) in the area at the time. The bomb was dropped to descent by parachute from a Tu-95V aircraft, and detonated autonomously 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) above the Sukhoy Nos ('Dry Nose') cape of Severny Island, Novaya Zemlya, 15 km (9.3 mi) from Mityushikha Bay, north of Matochkin Strait.

#Bomba nuclear verification#

Tested on 30 October 1961, the scientific result of the test was the experimental verification of calculation principles and multi-stage thermonuclear charges. Tsar Bomba was developed in the Soviet Union (USSR) by a group of nuclear physicists under the leadership of Igor Kurchatov, an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. The commission reported that experimental devices would be ready for explosive testing by the end of 1963.The Tsar Bomba (Russian: Р¦Р°СЂСЊ-Р±РѕМЃРјР±Р°), (code name: Ivan or Vanya), also known by the alphanumerical designation AN602, was a hydrogen aerial bomb, and the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested. McNamara, was informed that the Atomic Energy Commission was ready to build the American equivalent of a Tsar Bomba. Wellerstein states, the defense secretary, Robert S. Wellerstein quotes a scientist at the Sandia weapons lab - one of the nationвЂ™s three design centers for nuclear arms - as declaring that the American military wanted superbombs вЂњeven though no known targets justify such weapons.вЂќ The detonation of Tsar Bomba in October 1961 gave the issue new urgency. Wellerstein reports that the new president was told that a 100-megaton weapon would be six feet wide and 12 feet long - easy for a large bomber to carry and drop. A once-secret Air Force history said enthusiasm for the giant weapon cooled as the study found that вЂњlethal radioactivity might not be contained within the confines of an enemy state.вЂќД«y January 1961, when Kennedy took office, plans for a lesser superbomb had grown more detailed. In 1958, the Air Force chief of staff called for a study of weapons up to 1,000 megatons, Dr. The lobbying intensified as the military added its voice. But he decided not to go in the bomb direction.вЂќ вЂњItвЂ™s clear that Kennedy was on the fence. вЂњIt went all the way to the top,вЂќ Alex Wellerstein, a nuclear historian at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., and the studyвЂ™s author, said in an interview.

He chose not only to ignore the militaryвЂ™s appeals for deadlier arms, but to sponsor and sign an East-West treaty that precluded more superweapons. The report shows that the secret debate over what to do about the unprecedented Soviet blast was ended by President John F. A new study, based on recently declassified documents, offers insights into how an earlier president resolved a comparable dilemma. As the device shattered all records, it sent shock waves through the American defense establishment: How should the United States respond? Did the nation need bigger, more destructive arms? Was it wise to do nothing? What was the best way to protect the nation from the deadly stirrings of a belligerent foe?ДЄmerican policymakers now face similar questions as bold rivals pursue novel delivery systems for their nuclear arms. Sixty years ago on Saturday, the Soviet Union detonated the worldвЂ™s most powerful nuclear weapon, with a force 3,333 times that of the bomb used on Hiroshima.