Hydrogen bomb Sakharov year of creation. Academician Sakharov: what was the creator of the hydrogen bomb & nbsp

HELL. Sakharov“... armed our country with the most powerful weapon in history, which made the Soviet Union one of the two superpowers. Academician Sakharov alone did more for the country than the whole army of Chekists and Tsekists who persecuted him for many years and shortened his life.

For many years there has been a debate: to whom do we owe the hydrogen bomb? Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov? Or is it still Soviet intelligence, which has been stealing American atomic secrets for years?

The first to speak about the possibility of creating thermonuclear weapons back in 1942 was the Nobel laureate who fled from fascist Italy to America. Enrico Fermi. He shared his idea with the person who was destined to bring it to life, an American Edward Teller. And the German communist physicist Klaus Fuchs, who was an agent of Soviet intelligence, worked in Teller's scientific group.

Information about Teller's work also came to Moscow. The study of these materials was entrusted Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich, future academician and three times Hero of Socialist Labor.

What is the principle of operation of thermonuclear weapons?

Atomic energy is released during the decay of the constituent parts of the atomic nucleus. To do this, plutonium was given the shape of a ball and surrounded by chemical explosives, which were detonated simultaneously at thirty-two points. The synchronized explosion instantly squeezed nuclear materials, and a chain reaction of the decay of atomic nuclei began. The basis of a thermonuclear or hydrogen bomb is the reverse process - fusion, the formation of nuclei of heavy elements by fusion of nuclei of lighter elements. At the same time, it stands out incomparably great energy. Such synthesis occurs on the Sun - however, at temperatures of tens of millions of degrees. the main problem was how to replicate such conditions on Earth. Edward Teller He was the first to think that the energy of an atomic explosion could be used as a fuse for a hydrogen bomb. The gigantic temperatures that occur during thermonuclear reactions excluded the possibility of an experiment. It was a job for mathematicians. In the United States, the first computers were already in full use. In Soviet Union cybernetics was recognized as a bourgeois pseudoscience Therefore, all calculations were made on paper. Almost all Soviet mathematicians were occupied with this work.

Calculations showed Zeldovich that the proposed Edward Teller H-bomb design doesn't work: not it was possible to create such a temperature and compress hydrogen isotopes in such a way that a spontaneous fusion reaction began. On this work could well stop. Moreover, Klaus Fuchs has already been arrested for espionage, and Moscow has lost information about what is happening with the Americans. But then a young physicist Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was sent to Arzamas-16. He solved this problem. Such insights happen only to geniuses and only at a young age. Moreover, Sakharov did not want to engage in nuclear weapons. He was only interested in theoretical physics. Andrey Sakharov with the help of the future academician Vitaly Ginzburg came up with a different design of the hydrogen bomb, which went down in the history of science as a "spherical puff". For Sakharov, the hydrogen isotope was located not separately, but in layers inside the plutonium charge. Therefore, a nuclear explosion made it possible to reach both the temperature and pressure necessary for a thermonuclear reaction to begin.

The hydrogen bomb was tested in August 1953.

The explosion turned out to be much stronger than an atomic one. The impression was terrible, the destruction monstrous. But Sakharov's puff was limited in power. Therefore, soon Sakharov and Zeldovich came up with a new bomb. It was built on the same principle that, having made sure of his initial mistake, the American Edward Teller went.

Andrei Sakharov armed our country with the most destructive weapons in human history. The Soviet Union became a superpower, and a balance of fear was established in the world that saved us from World War III.

For his services, Sakharov was elected to the Academy of Sciences. He received three stars of the Hero of Socialist Labor, the Stalin and Lenin Prizes - according to a closed list, of course. Twice the hero was supposed to erect a monument in his homeland, three times the hero - also in Moscow, but his very name was a big secret. He worked on the creation of hydrogen weapons as long as there were tasks in this area for a physicist of his level. But when these tasks were solved and the work of the technological level remained, his genius brain turned to other problems.

After the creation of hydrogen weapons, Academician Sakharov found himself in a narrow circle of the most valuable scientists for the state. These names were very few - Kurchatov, Khariton, Keldysh, Korolev... For these people, the state provided a fabulous life for those times, creating all the conditions for fruitful work. The highest officials of the state were polite, kind and helpful with them. They could easily call Khrushchev, and then Brezhnev and knew that they would be listened to attentively, that they would be heeded.

| 10/23/2014 at 01:08

Who actually created the hydrogen bomb instead of Sakharov.

Oleg Lavrentiev, creator of the hydrogen bomb

Oleg Lavrentiev was born in 1926 in Pskov and was probably a child prodigy. In any case, having read the book "Introduction to Nuclear Physics" in the 7th grade, he immediately caught fire with "the blue dream of working in the field of nuclear energy." But the war began. Oleg volunteered for the front. He met the victory in the Baltic states, but further studies again had to be postponed - the soldier had to continue military service in South Sakhalin, just liberated from the Japanese, in the small town of Poronaysk.

In the unit there was a library with technical literature and university textbooks, and Oleg, on his sergeant's allowance, subscribed to the journal "Advances in Physical Sciences".

The idea of ​​a hydrogen bomb and controlled thermonuclear fusion first came to him in 1948, when the command of the unit, which distinguished a capable sergeant, instructed him to prepare a lecture on the atomic problem for the personnel.

Having a few free days for preparation, I rethought all the accumulated material and found a solution to issues that I had been struggling with for more than one year, - says Oleg Aleksandrovich. - In 1949, in one year, I completed the 8th, 9th and 10th grades of the evening school for working youth and received a matriculation certificate. In January 1950, the American president, speaking before Congress, called on US scientists to complete work on the hydrogen bomb as soon as possible. And I knew how to make a bomb.

Having access only to a school textbook on physics, he alone, with the help of only his brains, did what huge teams of highly paid high-browed scientists struggled with, with unlimited means and opportunities on both sides of the ocean.

Having no contact with the scientific world, the soldier, in full agreement with the norms of life at that time, wrote a letter to Stalin. "I know the secret of the hydrogen bomb!" . And soon the command of the unit received an order from Moscow to create working conditions for Sergeant Lavrentiev. He was given a guarded room at the headquarters of the unit, where he wrote his first articles. In July 1950, he sent them by secret mail to the department of heavy engineering of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Lavrentiev described the principle of operation of a hydrogen bomb, where solid lithium deuteride was used as a fuel. This choice made it possible to make a compact charge - quite "on the shoulder" of the aircraft. Note that the first American hydrogen bomb "Mike", tested two years later, in 1952, contained liquid deuterium as a fuel, was as high as a house and weighed 82 tons.

The main question was how to isolate the ionized gas heated to hundreds of millions of degrees, that is, the plasma, from the cold walls of the reactor. No material can withstand such heat. The sergeant proposed a revolutionary solution at that time - a force field could act as a shell for high-temperature plasma. The first option is electric.

He did not know that his message was very quickly sent for review to the then Candidate of Sciences, and later Academician and three times Hero of Socialist Labor A. Sakharov, who already in August commented on the idea of ​​controlled thermonuclear fusion: “... I believe that the author puts a very an important and not hopeless problem... I consider it necessary to discuss in detail the draft of Comrade. Lavrentiev. Regardless of the results of the discussion, it is necessary to note the creative initiative of the author right now.”

On March 5, 1953, Stalin dies, on June 26, Beria is arrested and soon shot, and on August 12, 1953, a thermonuclear charge using lithium deuteride is successfully tested in the USSR. Participants in the creation of new weapons receive state awards, titles and prizes, but Lavrentyev, for a reason completely incomprehensible to him, loses a lot overnight.

At the university, they not only stopped giving me an increased scholarship, but also “turned out” the tuition fee for the past year, in fact, leaving me without a livelihood, - says Oleg Aleksandrovich. - I made my way to an appointment with the new dean and, in complete confusion, I heard: “Your benefactor has died. What do you want?"

At the same time, in LIPAN (the only place in the country where controlled thermonuclear fusion was then practiced), my admission was withdrawn, and I lost my permanent pass to the laboratory, where, according to an earlier agreement, I had to undergo undergraduate practice, and subsequently work. If the scholarship was later restored, then I never received admission to the institute.
In other words, they were simply removed from the secret fiefdom. Pushed back, fenced off from him with secrecy. Naive Russian scientist! He could not even imagine that this could be so.

In the spring of 1956, a young specialist arrived in Kharkov with a report on the theory of electromagnetic traps, which he wanted to show to the director of the institute, K. Sinelnikov. Oleg did not know that even before his arrival in Kharkov, Kirill Dmitrievich had already been called by one of the LIPANites, warning that a “scandalist” and “author of confused ideas” were coming to see him. They also called the head of the theoretical department of the institute, Alexander Akhiezer, recommending that Lavrentiev’s work be “hacked to death”. But Kharkiv residents were in no hurry with their assessments. The influence of the powerful Moscow-Arzamas scientific clique could not spread over one and a half thousand kilometers. However, they took an active part - they called, spread rumors, discredited the scientist. How to protect your feeder!
Application for opening
Oleg Alexandrovich found out by chance that he was the first to propose to hold the plasma by the field, having stumbled in 1968 (! 15 years later) in one of the books on the memoirs of I. Tamm (Head Sakharov). His last name was not, only an indistinct phrase about "one military man from the Far East",

The cat smells, (Tamm) whose meat she ate! Tamm and Sakharov understood perfectly well what was happening. What Lavrentiev came up with is the key that opens access to the implementation of the hydrogen bomb in practice. Everything else, the whole theory, has long been known to absolutely everyone, since it was described even in ordinary textbooks. And not only the "brilliant" Sakharov could bring the idea to a material embodiment, but also any techie who has unlimited access to material state resources.

Sakharov became famous for the fact that, under the influence of his beloved wife and her puppeteers, he began to actively destroy the Empire that had nurtured him with his "human rights" activities. the great "humanist" Sakharov at one time suggested to the US president in ~ 1970 (who was then, Nixon, sort of?) to launch a preventive nuclear strike on the USSR because he ... interferes with emigration from the "damned scoop". A. Sakharov, having waited for Gorbachev's "pegestgoyka", treacherously called from high tribunes to break the USSR into 30-40 "small, but civilized" states. It was then that human rights activists created the myth of the "father of the hydrogen bomb."

It's one thing when a well-known human rights activist and dissident is just an unsuccessful scientist who can only "develop creatively." And it is a completely different matter when the "father of the hydrogen bomb" becomes the "father of Russian democracy".
And the human rights activists, at the suggestion of overseas masters of psychological warfare, began to artificially inflate Sakharov's scientific merits, like a frog through a straw.

On August 12, 1953, at 7:30 am, the first Soviet hydrogen bomb was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site, which had the service name "Product RDS‑6c". It was the fourth Soviet test of a nuclear weapon.

The beginning of the first work on the thermonuclear program in the USSR dates back to 1945. Then information was received about the research being conducted in the United States on the thermonuclear problem. They were initiated by the American physicist Edward Teller in 1942. Teller's concept of thermonuclear weapons was taken as the basis, which received the name "pipe" in the circles of Soviet nuclear scientists - a cylindrical container with liquid deuterium, which was supposed to be heated by the explosion of an initiating device such as a conventional atomic bomb. Only in 1950, the Americans found that the "pipe" was unpromising, and they continued to develop other designs. But by this time, Soviet physicists had already independently developed another concept of thermonuclear weapons, which soon - in 1953 - led to success.

Andrei Sakharov came up with an alternative scheme for the hydrogen bomb. The bomb was based on the idea of ​​"puff" and the use of lithium-6 deuteride. Developed in KB-11 (today it is the city of Sarov, former Arzamas-16, Nizhny Novgorod region), the RDS-6s thermonuclear charge was a spherical system of layers of uranium and thermonuclear fuel surrounded by a chemical explosive.

To increase the energy release of the charge, tritium was used in its design. The main task in creating such a weapon was to use the energy released during the explosion of an atomic bomb to heat and set fire to heavy hydrogen - deuterium, to carry out thermonuclear reactions with the release of energy that can support themselves. To increase the proportion of "burnt" deuterium, Sakharov proposed to surround the deuterium with a shell of ordinary natural uranium, which was supposed to slow down the expansion and, most importantly, significantly increase the density of deuterium. The phenomenon of ionization compression of thermonuclear fuel, which became the basis of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb, is still called "saccharization".

According to the results of work on the first hydrogen bomb, Andrei Sakharov received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and laureate of the Stalin Prize.

"Product RDS-6s" was made in the form of a transportable bomb weighing 7 tons, which was placed in the bomb hatch of the Tu-16 bomber. For comparison, the bomb created by the Americans weighed 54 tons and was the size of a three-story house.

To assess the destructive effects of the new bomb, a city was built at the Semipalatinsk test site from industrial and administrative buildings. V total there were 190 different structures on the field. In this test, for the first time, vacuum intakes of radiochemical samples were used, which automatically opened under the action of a shock wave. In total, 500 different measuring, recording and filming devices installed in underground casemates and solid ground structures were prepared for testing the RDS-6s. Aviation and technical support of tests - measurement of the pressure of the shock wave on the aircraft in the air at the time of the explosion of the product, air sampling from the radioactive cloud, aerial photography of the area was carried out by a special flight unit. The bomb was detonated remotely, by giving a signal from the remote control, which was located in the bunker.

It was decided to make an explosion on a steel tower 40 meters high, the charge was located at a height of 30 meters. The radioactive soil from previous tests was removed to a safe distance, special structures were rebuilt in their own places on old foundations, a bunker was built 5 meters from the tower to install equipment developed at the Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which registers thermonuclear processes.

Military equipment of all types of troops was installed on the field. During the tests, all experimental structures within a radius of up to four kilometers were destroyed. The explosion of a hydrogen bomb could completely destroy a city 8 kilometers across. Environmental consequences explosions were horrendous: the first explosion accounted for 82% of strontium-90 and 75% of cesium-137.

The power of the bomb reached 400 kilotons, 20 times more than the first atomic bombs in the USA and the USSR.

The work on the creation of the hydrogen bomb was the world's first intellectual "battle of wits" on a truly global scale. The creation of the hydrogen bomb initiated the emergence of completely new scientific areas - the physics of high-temperature plasma, the physics of ultrahigh energy densities, and the physics of anomalous pressures. For the first time in the history of mankind, mathematical modeling was used on a large scale.

Work on the "RDS-6s product" created a scientific and technical reserve, which was then used in the development of an incomparably more advanced hydrogen bomb of a fundamentally new type - a hydrogen bomb of a two-stage design.

The Sakharov-designed hydrogen bomb not only became a serious counterargument in the political confrontation between the USA and the USSR, but also caused the rapid development of Soviet cosmonautics in those years. It was after successful nuclear tests that the Korolev Design Bureau received an important government task to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile to deliver the created charge to the target. Subsequently, the rocket, called the "seven", launched the first artificial satellite of the Earth into space, and it was on it that the first cosmonaut of the planet, Yuri Gagarin, launched.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

The hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb became the cornerstone of the arms race between the US and the USSR. The two superpowers have been arguing for several years about who will be the first owner of a new type of destructive weapon.

thermonuclear weapons project

At the beginning of the Cold War, the test of the hydrogen bomb was the most important argument for the leadership of the USSR in the fight against the United States. Moscow wanted to achieve nuclear parity with Washington and invested huge amounts of money in the arms race. However, work on the creation of a hydrogen bomb began not thanks to generous funding, but because of reports from secret agents in America. In 1945, the Kremlin learned that the United States was preparing to create a new weapon. It was a super-bomb, the project of which was called Super.

The source of valuable information was Klaus Fuchs, an employee of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the USA. He gave the Soviet Union specific information that concerned the secret American developments of the superbomb. By 1950, the Super project was thrown into the trash, as it became clear to Western scientists that such a scheme for a new weapon could not be implemented. The head of this program was Edward Teller.

In 1946, Klaus Fuchs and John developed the ideas of the Super project and patented their own system. Fundamentally new in it was the principle of radioactive implosion. In the USSR, this scheme began to be considered a little later - in 1948. In general, we can say that at the initial stage it was completely based on American information received by intelligence. But, continuing research already on the basis of these materials, Soviet scientists were noticeably ahead of their Western counterparts, which allowed the USSR to first obtain the first, and then the most powerful thermonuclear bomb.

On December 17, 1945, at a meeting of a special committee established under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, nuclear physicists Yakov Zel'dovich, Isaak Pomeranchuk and Julius Khartion made a report "Using the nuclear energy of light elements." This paper considered the possibility of using a deuterium bomb. This speech was the beginning of the Soviet nuclear program.

In 1946, theoretical studies of the hoist were carried out at the Institute of Chemical Physics. The first results of this work were discussed at one of the meetings of the Scientific and Technical Council in the First Main Directorate. Two years later, Lavrenty Beria instructed Kurchatov and Khariton to analyze materials about the von Neumann system, which were delivered to the Soviet Union thanks to covert agents in the west. The data from these documents gave an additional impetus to the research, thanks to which the RDS-6 project was born.

Evie Mike and Castle Bravo

On November 1, 1952, the Americans tested the world's first thermonuclear bomb. It was not yet a bomb, but already its most important component. The explosion occurred on the Enivotek Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean. and Stanislav Ulam (each of them is actually the creator of the hydrogen bomb) shortly before developed a two-stage design, which the Americans tested. The device could not be used as a weapon, as it was produced using deuterium. In addition, it was distinguished by its enormous weight and dimensions. Such a projectile simply could not be dropped from an aircraft.

The test of the first hydrogen bomb was carried out by Soviet scientists. After the United States learned about the successful use of the RDS-6s, it became clear that it was necessary to close the gap with the Russians in the arms race as soon as possible. The American test passed on March 1, 1954. Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands was chosen as the test site. The Pacific archipelagos were not chosen by chance. There was almost no population here (and those few people who lived on nearby islands were evicted on the eve of the experiment).

The most devastating American hydrogen bomb explosion became known as "Castle Bravo". The charge power turned out to be 2.5 times higher than expected. The explosion led to radiation contamination of a large area (many islands and the Pacific Ocean), which led to a scandal and a revision of the nuclear program.

Development of RDS-6s

The project of the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb was named RDS-6s. The plan was written by the outstanding physicist Andrei Sakharov. In 1950, the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to concentrate work on the creation of new weapons in KB-11. According to this decision, a group of scientists led by Igor Tamm went to the closed Arzamas-16.

Especially for this grandiose project, the Semipalatinsk test site was prepared. Before the test of the hydrogen bomb began, numerous measuring, filming and recording devices were installed there. In addition, on behalf of scientists, almost two thousand indicators appeared there. The area affected by the hydrogen bomb test included 190 structures.

The Semipalatinsk experiment was unique not only because of the new type of weapon. Unique intakes designed for chemical and radioactive samples were used. Only a powerful shock wave could open them. Recording and filming devices were installed in specially prepared fortified structures on the surface and in underground bunkers.

alarm clock

Back in 1946, Edward Teller, who worked in the United States, developed the RDS-6s prototype. It was called Alarm Clock. Initially, the project of this device was proposed as an alternative to Super. In April 1947, a whole series of experiments began at the Los Alamos laboratory to investigate the nature of thermonuclear principles.

From the Alarm Clock, scientists expected the greatest energy release. In the fall, Teller decided to use lithium deuteride as fuel for the device. Researchers had not yet used this substance, but expected that it would increase efficiency. Interestingly, Teller already noted in his memos the dependence of the nuclear program on further development computers. This technique was needed by scientists for more accurate and complex calculations.

Alarm Clock and RDS-6s had much in common, but they differed in many ways. The American version was not as practical as the Soviet one due to its size. He inherited the large size from the Super project. In the end, the Americans had to abandon this development. The last studies took place in 1954, after which it became clear that the project was unprofitable.

Explosion of the first thermonuclear bomb

The first test of a hydrogen bomb in human history took place on August 12, 1953. In the morning, a bright flash appeared on the horizon, which blinded even through goggles. The RDS-6s explosion turned out to be 20 times more powerful than an atomic bomb. The experiment was considered successful. Scientists were able to achieve an important technological breakthrough. For the first time, lithium hydride was used as a fuel. Within a radius of 4 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion, the wave destroyed all the buildings.

Subsequent tests of the hydrogen bomb in the USSR were based on the experience gained using the RDS-6s. This devastating weapon was not only the most powerful. An important advantage of the bomb was its compactness. The projectile was placed in the Tu-16 bomber. Success allowed Soviet scientists to get ahead of the Americans. In the USA at that time there was a thermonuclear device, the size of a house. It was non-transportable.

When Moscow announced that the Soviet hydrogen bomb was ready, Washington disputed this information. The main argument of the Americans was the fact that the thermonuclear bomb should be manufactured according to the Teller-Ulam scheme. It was based on the principle of radiation implosion. This project will be implemented in the USSR in two years, in 1955.

The physicist Andrei Sakharov made the greatest contribution to the creation of the RDS-6s. The hydrogen bomb was his brainchild - it was he who proposed the revolutionary technical solutions that made it possible to successfully complete tests at the Semipalatinsk test site. Young Sakharov immediately became an academician at the USSR Academy of Sciences, a Hero of Socialist Labor and a laureate of the Stalin Prize. Other scientists also received awards and medals: Yuli Khariton, Kirill Shchelkin, Yakov Zeldovich, Nikolai Dukhov, etc. In 1953, a hydrogen bomb test showed that Soviet science can overcome what until recently seemed fiction and fantasy. Therefore, immediately after the successful explosion of the RDS-6s, the development of even more powerful projectiles began.

RDS-37

On November 20, 1955, another test of the hydrogen bomb took place in the USSR. This time it was two-stage and corresponded to the Teller-Ulam scheme. The RDS-37 bomb was about to be dropped from an aircraft. However, when he took to the air, it became clear that the tests would have to be carried out in an emergency. Contrary to forecasts of weather forecasters, the weather deteriorated noticeably, due to which dense clouds covered the test site.

For the first time, experts were forced to land a plane with a thermonuclear bomb on board. For some time there was a discussion at the Central Command Post about what to do next. A proposal was considered to drop the bomb on the mountains nearby, but this option was rejected as too risky. Meanwhile, the plane continued to circle near the landfill, producing fuel.

Zel'dovich and Sakharov received the decisive word. A hydrogen bomb that did not explode at a test site would have led to disaster. Scientists understood the full degree of risk and their own responsibility, and yet they gave written confirmation that the landing of the aircraft would be safe. Finally, the commander of the Tu-16 crew, Fyodor Golovashko, received the command to land. The landing was very smooth. The pilots showed all their skills and did not panic in a critical situation. The maneuver was perfect. The Central Command Post let out a breath of relief.

The creator of the hydrogen bomb Sakharov and his team have postponed the tests. The second attempt was scheduled for 22 November. On this day, everything went without emergency situations. The bomb was dropped from a height of 12 kilometers. While the projectile was falling, the plane managed to retire to a safe distance from the epicenter of the explosion. A few minutes later, the nuclear mushroom reached a height of 14 kilometers, and its diameter was 30 kilometers.

The explosion was not without tragic incidents. From the shock wave at a distance of 200 kilometers, glass was knocked out, because of which several people were injured. A girl who lived in a neighboring village also died, on which the ceiling collapsed. Another victim was a soldier who was in a special waiting area. The soldier fell asleep in the dugout, and he died of suffocation before his comrades could pull him out.

Development of the "Tsar bomb"

In 1954, the best nuclear physicists of the country, under the leadership, began the development of the most powerful thermonuclear bomb in the history of mankind. Andrey Sakharov, Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babaev, Yuri Smirnov, Yuri Trutnev, etc. also took part in this project. Due to its power and size, the bomb became known as the Tsar Bomba. Project participants later recalled that this phrase appeared after Khrushchev's famous statement about "Kuzka's mother" at the UN. Officially, the project was called AN602.

Over the seven years of development, the bomb has gone through several reincarnations. At first, scientists planned to use uranium components and the Jekyll-Hyde reaction, but later this idea had to be abandoned due to the danger of radioactive contamination.

Trial on New Earth

For some time, the Tsar Bomba project was frozen, since Khrushchev was going to the USA, and in cold war there was a short pause. In 1961, the conflict between the countries flared up again and in Moscow they again remembered thermonuclear weapons. Khrushchev announced the upcoming tests in October 1961 during the XXII Congress of the CPSU.

On the 30th, a Tu-95V with a bomb on board took off from Olenya and headed for Novaya Zemlya. The plane reached the target for two hours. Another Soviet hydrogen bomb was dropped at an altitude of 10.5 thousand meters above the Dry Nose nuclear test site. The shell exploded while still in the air. A fireball appeared, which reached a diameter of three kilometers and almost touched the ground. According to scientists, the seismic wave from the explosion crossed the planet three times. The blow was felt a thousand kilometers away, and all living things at a distance of a hundred kilometers could receive third-degree burns (this did not happen, since the area was uninhabited).

At that time, the most powerful US thermonuclear bomb was four times less powerful than the Tsar Bomba. The Soviet leadership was pleased with the result of the experiment. In Moscow, they got what they wanted so much from the next hydrogen bomb. The test showed that the USSR has weapons much more powerful than the United States. In the future, the devastating record of the Tsar Bomba was never broken. The most powerful explosion of the hydrogen bomb was a milestone in the history of science and the Cold War.

Thermonuclear weapons of other countries

British development of the hydrogen bomb began in 1954. The project leader was William Penney, who had previously been a member of the Manhattan Project in the United States. The British had crumbs of information about the structure of thermonuclear weapons. American allies did not share this information. Washington cited the 1946 Atomic Energy Act. The only exception for the British was permission to observe the tests. In addition, they used aircraft to collect samples left after the explosions of American shells.

At first, in London, they decided to limit themselves to the creation of a very powerful atomic bomb. Thus began the testing of the Orange Herald. During them, the most powerful non-thermonuclear bomb in the history of mankind was dropped. Its disadvantage was excessive cost. On November 8, 1957, a hydrogen bomb was tested. The history of the creation of the British two-stage device is an example of successful progress in the conditions of lagging behind the two superpowers arguing with each other.

In China, the hydrogen bomb appeared in 1967, in France - in 1968. Thus, there are five states in the club of countries possessing thermonuclear weapons today. Controversial remains about the hydrogen bomb in North Korea. The head of the DPRK stated that his scientists were able to develop such a projectile. During the tests, seismologists different countries recorded seismic activity caused by a nuclear explosion. But there is still no specific information about the hydrogen bomb in the DPRK.

On January 16, 1963, Nikita Khrushchev announced the creation of a hydrogen bomb in the USSR. And this is another occasion to recall the scale of its devastating consequences and the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction.

On January 16, 1963, Nikita Khrushchev announced that a hydrogen bomb had been created in the USSR, after which nuclear tests were stopped. Caribbean crisis 1962 showed how fragile and defenseless the world can be against the backdrop of a nuclear threat, so in a senseless race to destroy each other, the USSR and the United States were able to reach a compromise and sign the first treaty that regulated the development of nuclear weapons, the Atmospheric Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. , space and under water, to which many countries of the world subsequently joined.

In the USSR and the USA, nuclear weapons tests have been conducted since the mid-1940s. The theoretical possibility of obtaining energy by thermonuclear fusion was known even before the Second World War. It is also known that in Germany in 1944, work was underway to initiate thermonuclear fusion by compressing nuclear fuel using charges of conventional explosives, but they were unsuccessful because they failed to obtain the required temperatures and pressures.

Over the 15 years of testing nuclear weapons in the USSR and the USA, many discoveries were made in the field of chemistry and physics, which led to the production of two types of bombs - atomic and hydrogen. The principle of their operation is slightly different: if the explosion of an atomic bomb leads to the decay of the nucleus, then the hydrogen bomb explodes due to the synthesis of elements with the release of an enormous amount of energy. It is this reaction that takes place in the interiors of stars, where, under the influence of ultrahigh temperatures and gigantic pressure, hydrogen nuclei collide and merge into heavier helium nuclei. The resulting amount of energy is enough to start a chain reaction involving all possible hydrogen. That is why the stars do not go out, and the explosion of a hydrogen bomb has such destructive power.

How it works?

Scientists copied this reaction using liquid isotopes of hydrogen - deuterium and tritium, which gave the name "hydrogen bomb". Subsequently, lithium-6 deuteride, a solid compound of deuterium and an isotope of lithium, was used, which, in its chemical properties, is an analogue of hydrogen. Thus, lithium-6 deuteride is a bomb fuel and, in fact, turns out to be “cleaner” than uranium-235 or plutonium used in atomic bombs and causing powerful radiation. However, in order for the hydrogen reaction itself to start, something must very strongly and dramatically increase the temperatures inside the projectile, for which a conventional nuclear charge is used. But the container for thermonuclear fuel is made from radioactive uranium-238, alternating it with layers of deuterium, which is why the first Soviet bombs of this type were called "layers". It is because of them that all living things, even at a distance of hundreds of kilometers from the explosion and surviving the explosion, can receive a dose of radiation that will lead to serious illness and death.

Why does the explosion form a "mushroom"?

In fact, a mushroom-shaped cloud is an ordinary physical phenomenon. Such clouds are formed during ordinary explosions of sufficient power, during volcanic eruptions, strong fires and meteorite falls. Hot air always rises above cold air, but here it heats up so quickly and so powerfully that it rises in a visible column, twists into an annular vortex and pulls a "leg" behind it - a column of dust and smoke from the surface of the earth. Rising, the air gradually cools, becoming like an ordinary cloud due to the condensation of water vapor. However, that's not all. Much more dangerous for humans shock wave, diverging along the surface of the earth from the epicenter of the explosion along a circle with a radius of up to 700 km, and radioactive fallout falling from that very mushroom cloud.

60 Soviet hydrogen bombs

Until 1963, more than 200 nuclear test explosions were carried out in the USSR, 60 of which were thermonuclear, that is, in this case, not an atomic bomb, but a hydrogen bomb exploded. Three or four experiments could be carried out at the test sites per day, during which the dynamics of the explosion, striking abilities, and potential damage to the enemy were studied.

The first prototype was blown up on August 27, 1949, and the last test of a nuclear weapon in the USSR was made on December 25, 1962. All tests took place mainly at two sites - at the Semipalatinsk test site or "Siyap", located on the territory of Kazakhstan, and on Novaya Zemlya, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.

August 12, 1953: The first test of the hydrogen bomb in the USSR

The first hydrogen explosion was carried out in the United States in 1952 on the Eniwetok Atoll. There they carried out an explosion of a charge with a capacity of 10.4 megatons, which was 450 times the power of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki. However, it is impossible to call this device a bomb in the truest sense of the word. It was a three-story building filled with liquid deuterium.

But the first thermonuclear weapon in the USSR was tested in August 1953 at the Semipalatinsk test site. It was already a real bomb dropped from an airplane. The project was developed in 1949 (even before the first Soviet nuclear bomb was tested) by Andrei Sakharov and Yuli Khariton. The power of the explosion was equivalent to 400 kilotons, but studies have shown that the power could be increased to 750 kilotons, since only 20% of the fuel was used up in a thermonuclear reaction.

The most powerful bomb in the world

The most powerful explosion in history was initiated by a group of nuclear physicists led by Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences I.V. Kurchatov on October 30, 1961 at the Dry Nose training ground in the archipelago new earth. The measured power of the explosion was 58.6 megatons, which was many times higher than all experimental explosions carried out on the territory of the USSR or the USA. It was originally planned that the bomb would be even larger and more powerful, but there was not a single aircraft that could lift more weight into the air.

The fireball of the explosion reached a radius of approximately 4.6 kilometers. Theoretically, it could grow to the surface of the earth, but this was prevented by a reflected shock wave, which lifted the bottom of the ball and threw it away from the surface. Nuclear mushroom explosion rose to a height of 67 kilometers (for comparison: modern passenger aircraft fly at an altitude of 8-11 kilometers). The appreciable wave of atmospheric pressure that arose as a result of the explosion circled the globe three times, spreading in just a few seconds, and the sound wave reached Dikson Island at a distance of about 800 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion (the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg). Everything at a distance of two or three kilometers was contaminated with radiation.