26 November 2008

Tsar bomba: most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated



Tsar Bomba (Russian: Царь-бомба), literally "king Bomb", is the Western name for the RDS-220 hydrogen bomb (codenamed "Иван" (Ivan) by its developers) — the largest, most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. Developed by the Soviet Union, the bomb was originally designed to have a yield of about 100 megatons of TNT; however that was reduced by half in order to limit the amount of nuclear fallout that would result. Two bombs were built, a mock bomb and the real bomb, with the real bomb being tested on October 30, 1961, in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Despite testing, the weapon never entered service; it was simply a demonstration of the capabilities of the Soviet Union's military technology at that time. The mock bomb was stored in the Russian Nuclear Weapons Museum in Sarov.

For more information: Wikipedia - Tsar Bomba



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