Since the first atomic explosion, under the code title "Trinity", July 16, 1945, almost two thousand tests of atomic bombs were conducted, and most of them were held in the 60-70s.
When this technology was new, the tests were often conducted, and they represented the spectacle something else.
They all led to the development of a newer and powerful nuclear weapons. But since the 1990s of the government different countries Began to limit future tests - to take at least the US moratorium and the UN Agreement on the comprehensive prohibition of nuclear testing.
Selection of photos of the first 30 years of atomic bomb tests:
Test nuclear explosion Upshot-Knothole GRABLE in Nevada on May 25, 1953. The 280-Milimmeter nuclear shell flew out of the M65 gun, downdown in the air - about 150 meters above the ground - and produced an explosion of 15 kiloton. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
Open wiring of the coded name of The Gadget (the informal name of the Trinity project) is the first test atomic explosion. The device was prepared for an explosion, which occurred on July 16, 1945. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
The shadow of the director of the National Los Alamosa Jay of Robert Oppenheimer, observing the Gadget projectile assembly. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
200-ton steel container "Jumbo", used in the Trinity project, was made to restore plutonium if the explosive suddenly does not start chain reaction. As a result, Jumbo was not useful, but it was placed not far from the epicenter to measure the effects of the explosion. Jumbo survived the explosion, which cannot be said about his supporting frame. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
The growing fireball and explosive wave of the Trinity explosion in 0.025 seconds after the explosion on July 16, 1945. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
Photo of the explosion "Trinity" with a long exposure in a few seconds after detonation. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
Fireball "fungus" of the first atomic explosion in the world. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
The US military is watching the explosion during the operation of the Crossroads on the Bikini Atoll 25, 1946. It was the fifth nuclear explosion After the first two tests and two atomic bombs, discarded on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
Nuclear mushroom and splash post in the sea during testing nuclear bombs On the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It was the first underwater test atomic explosion. After the explosion, several former warships sat down to stranded. (AP Photo)
A huge nuclear mushroom after the bomb explosion on the Bikini Atoll 25, 1946. Dark points in the foreground - ships placed specifically on the way of an explosive wave to check what she will do with them. (AP Photo)
November 16, 1952 B-36H bomber dropped atomic bomb on northern part Runit Islands on Enuvet's Atoll. The result was an explosion of 500 kiloton and a diameter of 450 meters. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
Operation "Greenhouse" took place in the spring of 1951. It consisted of four explosions in the Pacific Nuclear Polygon in the Pacific Ocean. This is a photo of the third test under the codenate name "George", held on May 9, 1951. He became the first explosion in which deuterium and tritium were burned. Power - 225 kilotonne. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
The "rope tricks" of the nuclear explosion, imprinted in less than one millisecond after the explosion. During the operation "Tambler-Snapper" in 1952, this nuclear device was suspended 90 meters above the Nevada desert on mooring cables. As the plasma propagates, the radiated energy overheated and evaporates cables over a fiery ball, as a result of which these "scraps" turned out. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
During the Operation "Apshote Nothol", the mannequin group was planted in the dining room at home to experience the effect of a nuclear explosion at homes and humans. March 15, 1953. (AP PHOTO / DICK STROBEL)
That's what happened to them after a nuclear explosion. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
In the same house number two on the second floor on the bed lay another mannequin. In the house window, a 90-meter steel tower is visible, on which a nuclear bomb will soon explode. purpose test explosion - Show people what will happen if the nuclear explosion will occur in the American city. (AP PHOTO / DICK STROBEL)
Damaged bedroom, windows and disappeared nonsense where the blanket after the test explosion atomic bombs March 17, 1953. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
Mannequins representing a typical American family, in the living room of the test house number 2 on the territory of the nuclear landfill Nevada. (AP Photo)
The same "family" after the explosion. Someone scattered throughout the living room, someone just disappeared. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
During the operation of the "plumb" on the Nevada nuclear polygon on August 30, 1957, the projectile was downdown from the ball in the Yucca Flat desert at an altitude of 228 meters. National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)
Test explosion of the hydrogen bomb during the Red Ring operation over the Bikini Atoll Mone 1956. (AP Photo)
Ionization radiance around a coolest fiery ball in the Yucca desert at 4:30 am on July 15, 1957. National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)
Flash exploded nuclear warhead Air-to-air rockets at 7:30 am on July 19, 1957 at Indian Springs Air Base, 48 km from the explosion site. In the foreground - the SCORPIO-SHIPMER'S SHIPMERS. National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)
The fireball of the projectile "Priscilla" on June 24, 1957 during a series of operations "plumb". National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)
NATO representatives are watching the explosion during the Operation "Boltzmann" on May 28, 1957. National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)
The tail part of the airship of the American Navy after testing nuclear weapons in Nevada on August 7, 1957. Airship Paril in a coastal flight, more than 8 km from the epicenter of the explosion, when he was overtakeling an explosive wave. There was no one in the airship. National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)
Observers during the operation HardTack I - Explosion thermonuclear bomb In 1958. National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)
Tests "Arkansas" - part of the Dominic operation - a series of more than a hundred explosions in Nevada and the Pacific Ocean in 1962. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
Part of the series of high-altitude nuclear tests Fishbowl Bluegill - an explosion of 400 kiloton in the atmosphere, at an altitude of 48 km above Safety ocean. View from above. October 1962. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
Rings around the nuclear mushroom during the test project YESO in 1962. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
Crater Sedan formed after explosion 100 kilotonne explosives at a depth of 193 meters under the loose deposits of the desert in Nevada on July 6, 1962. Crater turned 97 meters deep and 390 meters in diameter. National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)
Photo of the nuclear explosion of the French government at the Mururoa atoll in 1971. (AP Photo)
The same nuclear explosion on the Mururoa Atoll. (Pierre J. / CC by NC SA)
The "surviving city" was built in 2286 meters from the epicenter of the nuclear explosion with a capacity of 29 kilotons. The house remained almost entire. The "surviving city" consisted of houses, office buildings, shelters, sources of electricity, communications, radio stations and "residential" vans. The test called Apple II has passed on May 5, 1955. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)
In contact with
Long I. hard work Physician scientists. The beginning of the core division in the USSR can be considered the 1920s. Since the 1930s, nuclear physics becomes one of the main directions of domestic physical science, and in October 1940, for the first time in the USSR, a group of Soviet scientists was given to the use of atomic energy in weapons purposes, submitting an application to the Uranium's Use of the Red Army Explosive and poisoning substance. "
In April 1946, a design bureau of KB-11 was created at Laboratory No. 2 (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNIIEF) is one of the most secret enterprises for the development of domestic nuclear weapons, which Julius Khariton was appointed chief designer. The base for deploying KB-11 was chosen factory N 550 of the People's Commissariat of Ammunition, which produced the body of artillery shells.
The super 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.
Before KB-11, the task was set to create 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, the work with uranium was discontinued due to the relatively low efficacy of it compared to the costs of nuclear materials.
The first domestic atomic bomb had the official designation of RDS-1. It was deciphered in different ways: "Russia does herself", "Motherland gives Stalin", etc. But in official Resolution Council of Ministers of the USSR dated June 21, 1946, it was encrypted as " Jet engine Special "(" C ").
The creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb of the RDS-1 was carried out taking into account the existing materials according to the US plutonium bomb scheme, tested in 1945. These materials were provided by Soviet external intelligence. An important source of information was Claus Fuchs - German Physicist, a participant in nuclear programs USA and Great Britain.
Separations for the American plutonium charge for the atomic bomb allowed to reduce the deadlines for the creation of the first Soviet charge, although many of the technical solutions of the American prototype were not the best. Even at the initial stages, Soviet experts could offer the best decisions of both the charge as a whole and its individual nodes. Therefore, First tested USSR The charge for the atomic bomb was more primitive and less efficient than original option Charge proposed by Soviet scientists in early 1949. But in order to be guaranteed and in short time show that the USSR also possesses atomic weaponsThe decision was made on the first test to use the charge created by the American scheme.
The charge for the RDS-1 atomic bomb was made in the form of a multilayer design in which the translation active substance - Plutonium in the supercritical state was carried out due to its compression by means of a converging spherical detonation wave in an explosive substance.
RDS-1 was an aerospace atomic bomb weighing 4.7 tons, a diameter of 1.5 meters and a length of 3.3 meters.
It was developed as applied to the Tu-4 aircraft, whose bombus allowed the placement of the "product" with a diameter of no more than 1.5 meters. Plutonium was used as a dividing material in the bomb.
Constructive Bomb RDS-1 consisted of a nuclear charge; Explosive device and systems of the charge undermining with protection systems; The ballistic corps of the air bible, in which there was a nuclear charge and the control of the undermining.
To produce a nuclear charge of a bomb in the city of Chelyabinsk-40 in the Southern Urals, a plant was built under the conventional number 817 (now FSUE " Production Association "Lighthouse"). The plant consisted of the first Soviet industrial reactor for plutonium operation, a radiochemical plant for the release of plutonium from the irradiated in the reactor of uranium, and a plant for producing metal plutonium products.
The 817 plant reactor was removed on the design capacity in June 1948, and a year later, the enterprise received required amount Plutonium for the manufacture of the first charge for the atomic bomb.
A place for the landfill, which was planned to test the charge, was chosen in the Priirtish steppe, about 170 kilometers of the west of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. The polygon was reserved by plain with a diameter of about 20 kilometers, surrounded from the south, of the West and the North of the low mountains. In the east of this space there were small hills.
The construction of a polygon, called the training ground No. 2 of the USSR Ministry of the Armed Forces (subsequently the USSR Ministry of Defense), was started in 1947, and by July 1949, it was mainly completed.
For testing at the landfill, an experimental platform was prepared with a diameter of 10 kilometers, divided into sectors. It was equipped with special structures providing testing, observation and registration of physical research.
In the center of the experimental field mounted a metal lattice tower with a height of 37.5 meters, designed to set the charge of the RDS-1.
At the distance of one kilometer from the center, an underground building for equipment registering light, neutron and nuclear explosion gamma streams was constructed. To study the impact of a nuclear explosion on an experimental field, segments of the subway tunnels were built, fragments of the runways of airfields, placed samples of aircraft, tanks, artillery rocket installations, shipproofs different types. To ensure the work of the physical sector, 44 facilities were built on the landfill and a cable network of 560 kilometers was laid.
August 5, 1949 government Commission According to the testing of RDS-1, it was conclosed about the complete readiness of the landfill and suggested within 15 days to carry out a detailed development of operations on the assembly and undermine the product. Testing was determined on latest numbers August. Igor Kurchatov was appointed scientific test manager.
In the period from August 10 to August 26, 10 rehearsals for the management of the test field and the equipment undermining the charge, as well as three training teachings with the launch of the entire equipment and four undermines of inventive explosives with an aluminum ball from the abyssation automation.
On August 21, a special train on the landfill was delivered to the plutonium charge and four neutron smelled, one of which was supposed to be used when undermining a combat product.
On August 24, Kurchatov arrived at the polygon. By August 26, all preparatory work at the landfill was completed.
Kurchatov gave an orders for testing RDS-1 August 29 at eight in the morning local time.
At four o'clock in the afternoon on August 28, a plutonium charge and neutron socks for him were delivered to the Tower's workshop. About 12 nights in the assembly workshop on the site in the center of the field began the final assembly of the product - the investment in it of the main node, that is, the charge of plutonium and neutron smelled. In three nights on August 29, the installation was completed.
By the six o'clock in the morning, the charge was raised to the test tower, its equipment of fuses was completed and the connection to the subversive scheme was completed.
In connection with the deterioration of the weather, it was decided to transfer an explosion one hour earlier.
At 6.35 operators included the power of the automation system. At 6.48 minutes, the field machine was turned on. For 20 seconds before the explosion, the main connector was included (switch) connecting the RDS-1 product with the control automation system.
Exactly at seven o'clock in the morning on August 29, 1949, the whole terrain littered with a dazzling light, which marked that the USSR successfully completed the development and testing of its first charge for the atomic bomb.
After 20 minutes after the explosion, two tanks equipped with lead protection were sent to the center of the field, for radiation exploration and inspection of the field center. Intelligence It was found that all structures in the center of the field were demolished. At the site of the tower, the funnel, the soil in the center of the field melted, and solid slag crust formed. Civil buildings and industrial structures were completely or partially destroyed.
The equipment used in the experience made it possible to carry out optical observations and measurement of heat flux, parameters shock wave, characteristics of neutron and gamma radiation, determine the level radioactive pollution terrain in the area of \u200b\u200bthe explosion and along the trace of the explosion clouds, learn impact agrowing factors nuclear explosion on biological objects.
The energy release of the explosion was 22 kilotons (in TNT equivalent).
For the successful development and test of the charge for an atomic bomb by several closed decisions of the Presidium Supreme Council USSR dated October 29, 1949 orders and medals of the USSR was awarded large group leading researchers, designers, technologists; Many people were awarded the title of laureates Stalinist PrizeAnd the direct developers of the nuclear charge received the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor.
As a result successful testing RDS-1 USSR eliminated the American monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons, becoming the second nuclear power World.
Material prepared on the basis of RIA news and open sources
After the first nuclear test of July 15, 1945, more than 2051 other tests of nuclear weapons worldwide were registered.
No other force personifies such an absolute destructive action as nuclear weapons. And this type of weapon is quickly becoming even more powerful for decades after the first test.
The test of a nuclear bomb in 1945 had a power of 20 kiloton, that is, the bomb had an explosive force of 20,000 tons in TNT equivalent. Within 20 years, the United States and the USSR experienced nuclear weapons with a total mass of more than 10 megaton, or 10 million tons in TNT equivalent. For a scale, it is at least 500 times stronger than the first atomic bomb. In order to bring the size of the largest nuclear explosions in the history on a scale, the data was derived using Nukemap Alex Wellerstein, a device for visualizing the terrible effects of a nuclear explosion in the real world.
In the maps given, the first explosion ring is a fiery ball, followed by radiation radiation. In a pink radius, almost all the destruction of buildings and fatal outcome 100%. In a gray radius, stronger buildings will withstand an explosion. In the orange radius, people will suffer from burns of the third degree, and combustible materials will light up, which will lead to possible fiery storms.
The largest nuclear explosions
Soviet tests 158 and 168
August 25 and September 19, 1962, less than a month apart from each other, were held in the USSR nuclear tests Over the Novoemel region of Russia, on the archipelago in the north of Russia near the Architect Ocean.
There are no video or photo recordings remaining, but both tests included the use of 10 megaton atomic bombs. These explosions would burn all within 1.77 square miles in the epicenter, causing burns to the third degree of victims in the area of \u200b\u200b1090 square miles.
Ivi Mike
On November 1, 1952, the United States was tested by Ivey Mike's test over the Marshall Islands. Ivy Mike - the first in the world h-bomb And there was a power of 10.4 megaton, which is 700 times stronger than the first atomic bomb.
Ivi Mike's explosion was so powerful that Elvelab Island evaporated where he was blown away, as a result of which a 164-foot deep crater was formed in his place.
Castle Romeo.
Romeo was the second nuclear explosion from the test series, which was held in 1954, all explosions were held on the Bikini Atoll. Romeo was the third most powerful test Series and had a power of about 11 megaton.
Romeo was the first tested on the barge in open waters, and not on the reef, since the United States quickly ended the islands where nuclear weapons could be experienced. The explosion will burn all within 1.91 square miles.
Soviet test 123.
October 23, 1961 Soviet Union conducted a nuclear test number 123 above the new land. Test 123 was a capacity of 12.5 megaton nuclear bombs. The bomb of this size will burn all within 2.11 square miles, causing burns of the third degree to people on the area of \u200b\u200b1309 square miles. This test also did not leave any entries.
Castle Yankee.
Castle Yankee, the second in power of the test series, was held on May 4, 1954. The bomb had a power of 13.5 megaton. Four days later, his radioactive decay rainfall reached Mexico City, not a distance of about 7100 miles.
Castle Bravo.
Castle Bravo was held on February 28, 1954, was the first of the Castle series of tests and the largest nuclear explosion in the United States of all times.
Bravo was originally assumed as a 6-megaton explosion. Instead, the bomb produced a 15 megaton explosion. His mushroom reached 114,000 feet in the air.
The requests of the American military had consequences in the amount of irradiation of about 665 inhabitants of the Marshall Islands and death from radiation irradiation Japanese fisherman, which was 80 miles from the explosion place.
Soviet tests 173, 174 and 147
From August 5 to September 27, 1962, the USSR held a series of nuclear tests over the new land. Test 173, 174, 147 and all stand out like the fifth, fourth, and the third strongest nuclear explosions in history.
The all three explosions produced had a power of 20 megaton, or about 1000 times stronger than the nuclear bomb of Trinity. The bomb of this force will demolish in its path all within three square miles.
Test 219, Soviet Union
On December 24, 1962, the USSR conducted a test No. 219, with a capacity of 24.2 megatons over the new land. The bomb of this force can burn everything within 3.58 square miles, causing third-degree burns in the region up to 2250 square miles.
Tsar bomb
On October 30, 1961, the USSR blew up the greatest nuclear weapons ever tested and created the largest manual explosion in history. As a result of the explosion, which is 3000 times stronger bombsdropped on Hiroshima.
The flash of light from the explosion was visible at a distance of 620 miles.
Tsar bomb, ultimately, had the power between 50 and 58 megaton, twice more than second The magnitude of the nuclear explosion.
The bomb of such a size will create a fiery ball of 6.4 square miles and will be able to inflict the burns of the third degree within 4080 square miles from the epicenter of the bomb.
First atomic bomb
The first atomic explosion was the size of a bomb-king, and so far the explosion is considered almost unimaginable.
In accordance with Nukemap data, it is a 20-kiloton weapon with a fiery ball with a radius of 260 m, approximately 5 football fields. According to the estimates of the damage caused, the bomb will incur a deadly radiation of 7 miles in width, and will produce burns of a third degree at a distance of more than 12 miles. When using such a bomb on the Lower Manhattan, more than 150,000 people will be killed and the action of radioactive precipitation will reach the central connecticut, according to the calculations of Nukemap.
The first atomic bomb was tiny by the standards of nuclear weapons. But its destructiveness is still very high for perception.
At the Semipalatinsky landfill (Kazakhstan), successful tests of the first Soviet charge for an atomic bomb were held.
This event was preceded by a long and difficult work of physician scientists. The beginning of the core division in the USSR can be considered the 1920s. Since the 1930s, nuclear physics becomes one of the main directions of domestic physical science, and in October 1940, for the first time in the USSR, a group of Soviet scientists was given to the use of atomic energy in weapons purposes, submitting an application to the Uranium's Use of the Red Army Explosive and poisoning substance. "
War and evacuation started in June 1941 scientific institutionsThe problems of nuclear physics were interrupted by the creation of atomic weapons in the country. But since the fall of 1941, in the USSR began to receive intelligence information on the conduct of secret intensive research works in the UK, aimed at developing atomic energy methods for military purposes and the creation of explosives of tremendous devastating force.
This information was forced despite the war, to resume work in the USSR under uranium topics. September 28, 1942 a secret decree was signed State Committee Defense No. 2352SS "On the organization of work on uranium", according to which research resisted on the use of atomic energy.
In February 1943 supervisor The atomic problem was appointed Igor Kurchatov. In Moscow, headed by Kurchatov was created Laboratory No. 2 of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (now - the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute"), which began to study atomic energy.
Initially, the general management of the atomic problem was carried out by the Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Defense (GKO) of the USSR Vyacheslav Molotov. But on August 20, 1945 (a few days after the United States atomic bombing Japanese cities) GKO decided to create a special committee, which was headed by Lawrence Beria. He became the curator of the Soviet atomic project.
At the same time, for the immediate leadership of research, project, design organizations and industrial enterprisesThe first main management of the USSR SCC was created in the Soviet Atomic project (subsequently the Ministry of Middle Engineering of the USSR, now - the State Corporation for Atomic Energy "Rosatom"). The head of PSU was the former before people's Commissar Ammunition Boris Vannikov.
In April 1946, a design bureau of KB-11 was created at Laboratory No. 2 (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNIIEF) is one of the most secret enterprises for the development of domestic nuclear weapons, which Julius Khariton was appointed chief designer. The base for deploying KB-11 was chosen factory N 550 of the People's Commissariat of Ammunition, which produced the body of artillery shells.
The top secret object was located 75 kilometers from the city of Arzamas (Gorky region, now the Nizhny Novgorod region) on the territory of the former Sarov monastery.
Before KB-11, the task was set to create 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, the work with uranium was discontinued due to the relatively low efficacy of it compared to the costs of nuclear materials.
The first domestic atomic bomb had the official designation of RDS-1. It deciphered in different ways: "Russia does herself", "Motherland gives Stalin", etc. But in the official decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated June 21, 1946, it was encrypted as "a special jet engine (" C ").
The creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb of the RDS-1 was carried out taking into account the existing materials according to the US plutonium bomb scheme, tested in 1945. These materials were provided by Soviet foreign intelligence. An important source of information was Claus Fuchs - a German physicist, a member of the United States and UK nuclear programs.
Separations for the American plutonium charge for the atomic bomb allowed to reduce the deadlines for the creation of the first Soviet charge, although many of the technical solutions of the American prototype were not the best. Even at the initial stages, Soviet experts could offer the best decisions of both the charge as a whole and its individual nodes. Therefore, the first Tested USSR charge for an atomic bomb was more primitive and less efficient than the original charge proposed by Soviet scientists in early 1949. But in order to be guaranteed and in a short time to show that the USSR also has atomic weapons, it was decided on the first test to use a charge created by the American scheme.
The charge for the RDS-1 atomic bomb was a multilayer structure in which the translating of the active substance - plutonium into the supercritical state was carried out due to its compression by means of a converging spherical detonation wave in an explosive substance.
RDS-1 was an aerospace atomic bomb weighing 4.7 tons, a diameter of 1.5 meters and a length of 3.3 meters. It was developed as applied to the Tu-4 aircraft, whose bombus allowed the placement of the "product" with a diameter of no more than 1.5 meters. Plutonium was used as a dividing material in the bomb.
To produce a atomic charge of a bomb in the city of Chelyabinsk-40 in the South Urals, a plant was built under the conventional number 817 (now FSUE "Production Association" Mayak "). The plant consisted of the first Soviet industrial reactor for plutonium operations, a radiochemical plant for the release of plutonium from irradiated in Uranium reactor, and plant for producing metal plutonium products.
The 817 plant reactor was removed on the design capacity in June 1948, and a year later, the enterprise received the required amount of plutonium to manufacture the first charge for the atomic bomb.
A place for the landfill, which was planned to test the charge, was chosen in the Priirtish steppe, about 170 kilometers of the west of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. The polygon was reserved by plain with a diameter of about 20 kilometers, surrounded from the south, of the West and the North of the low mountains. In the east of this space there were small hills.
The construction of a polygon, called the training ground No. 2 of the USSR Ministry of the Armed Forces (subsequently the USSR Ministry of Defense), was started in 1947, and by July 1949, it was mainly completed.
For testing at the landfill, an experimental platform was prepared with a diameter of 10 kilometers, divided into sectors. It was equipped with special structures providing testing, observation and registration of physical research. In the center of the experimental field mounted a metal lattice tower with a height of 37.5 meters, designed to set the charge of the RDS-1. At the distance of one kilometer from the center, an underground building for equipment registering light, neutron and nuclear explosion gamma streams was constructed. To study the impact of the nuclear explosion on the experimental field, the segments of the subway tunnels were built, fragments of the runways of airfields were built, samples of airplanes, tanks, artillery rocket plants, ship's add-ons of various types were placed. To ensure the work of the physical sector, 44 facilities were built on the landfill and a cable network of 560 kilometers was laid.
In June-July 1949, two groups of KB-11 workers were sent to the landfill with supporting equipment and economic inventory, and on July 24, a group of specialists arrived there, which was to be directly involved in the preparation of an atomic bomb to test.
On August 5, 1949, the Governmental Commission for Testing RDS-1 made a conclusion about the complete readiness of the landfill.
On August 21, a special train on the landfill was delivered to the plutonium charge and four neutron smelled, one of which was supposed to be used when undermining a combat product.
On August 24, 1949, Kurchatov arrived at the polygon. By August 26, all preparatory work at the landfill was completed. The head of the Curchatov experience gave an orders to test the RDS-1 August 29 at eight in the morning local time and conducting preparatory operations, starting with eight o'clock in the morning on August 27.
On the morning of August 27, an assembly of a combat began near the central tower. On the afternoon of August 28, demolitions held the last full inspection of the tower, prepared automation to undermine and checked the subversive cable line.
At four o'clock in the afternoon on August 28, a plutonium charge and neutron socks for him were delivered to the Tower's workshop. The final installation of the charge was completed to the three o'clock in the morning on August 29. At four o'clock in the morning, the installers rolled out the product from the assembly workshop along the railway and installed it in the tilt of the tower truck lift, and then raised the charge on the top of the tower. By six o'clock, the charge equipment was completed and connecting it to the subversive scheme. Then the evacuation of all people from the test field began.
In connection with the worsening of the weather, Kurchatov decided to transfer the explosion from 8.00 to 7.00.
At 6.35 operators included the power of the automation system. 12 minutes before the explosion, the field was turned on. For 20 seconds before the explosion, the operator turned on the main connector (switch) connecting the product with the control automation system. From this point on, all operations performed an automatic device. Six seconds before the explosion, the main mechanism of the machine gun turned on the power and part of the field devices, and in one second it turned on all other devices, issued a bending signal.
Exactly at seven o'clock on August 29, 1949, the whole terrain littered with a dazzling light, which marked that the USSR successfully completed the development and testing of its first charge for an atomic bomb.
The charge power was 22 kilotons in TNT equivalent.
After 20 minutes after the explosion, two tanks equipped with lead protection were sent to the center of the field, for radiation exploration and inspection of the field center. Intelligence It was found that all structures in the center of the field were demolished. At the site of the tower, the funnel, the soil in the center of the field melted, and solid slag crust formed. Civil buildings and industrial structures were completely or partially destroyed.
The equipment used in the experiment allowed optical observations and measuring the heat flux, the parameters of the shock wave, the characteristics of neutron and gamma radiation, determine the level of radioactive pollution of the area in the explosion area and along the trace of the explosion clouds, study the impact of the striking factors of the nuclear explosion on biological objects.
For the successful development and testing of a charge for an atomic bomb by several closed decisions of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 29, 1949, a large group of leading researchers, designers, technologists were awarded with orders and medals of the USSR; Many people were awarded the title of laureates of the Stalinist Prize, and more than 30 people received the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor.
As a result of the successful test of RDS-1, the USSR eliminated the American monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons, becoming the second nuclear power of the world.
Russia intends to resume non-nuclear explosive tests on the central nuclear landfill on the New Earth archipelago. Such experiments do not go against the agreement on the comprehensive prohibition of nuclear tests and allow to assess the combat capability of nuclear weapons under the program for extending its operations. Probably also to implement this task russian ministry Defense intends to strengthen the military presence on the archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.
Information on the military development plans of the new land and nuclear landfill on this archipelago began to be dosed in the media from the beginning of September 2012. For example, on September 4, Colonel Yuri Sych, head of the 12th Chief Department of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, responsible for nuclear-technical support and security, announced that the landfill on new land is supported in readiness to conduct non-nuclear explosive experiments and full-scale nuclear tests.
On September 28, the "independent newspaper" with reference to the state corporation Rosatom wrote that non-nuclear explosive experiments on the new Earth would be resumed. The same information on October 4, also referred to as a source in Rosatom, confirmed Jane's agency. Against this background, a message about the intention of the Ministry of Defense of Russia to strengthen the military presence on the archipelago received an additional logical explanation.
In late September, the troops of the Western Military District completed the teachings of the interspecific group of troops and the forces of the Northern Fleet of Russia. They took part in more than 7,000 servicemen, about 20 ships and submarine, 30 aircraft and 150 units of military equipment. Various episodes of teachings were worked out in the Barents and Kara Sea, on the peninsulas, medium and fisheries, as well as the coast of the new land.
Currently, about 70% of nuclear ammunition, in service with Russia, are outdated produced by the time of the USSR. At the same time, the timing of the part of such weapons was repeatedly extended, and will be extended to continue. In particular, "NGOs of Mechanical Engineering" intends to extend the warranty service life of liquid ballistic missiles UT-100N Utkh up to 35-36 years old (it is currently 33 years old). Rockets will serve in the composition nuclear shield Russia is less than another 20 years.
Non-Nuclear Explosive Tests on New Earth will be resumed at the Polygon in the Syatkin Ballseparating the Northern Novoemel Island from the South. This strait has a depth of about 12 meters, the width is 600 meters, the anchor parking lots, as well as high, often cloudless shores. Such a landfill is considered the best place For non-nuclear experiments.
Explosion without consequences
Extending the service life of strategic rocket complexes In fact, it is carried out in two main stages. The possibilities of the missiles themselves acting in the role of nuclear weapons are periodically checked through control launches. Wherein combat part Rocket is replaced with a mass-dimensional layout. Such control shooting, in particular, are made on the Kura Polygon on Kamchatka. Second Stage - Evaluation of the Warhead ResourceMoreover, it is becoming increasingly important in the framework of current programs for extending the service life of strategic missiles.
To assess the residual resource of warheads and their combat capability, Russia and conducts non-nuclear explosive experiments (they are also called precritical or subcritical nuclear tests). They do not fall under the contract on the comprehensive prohibition of nuclear tests (CTBT) signed by Russia in 1996, since with such experiments it does not cause infection. ambient, radioactive emissions or powerful seismic oscillations.
Two main variants of non-nuclear explosive tests are currently being held - using uranium or plutonium isotopes (235U and 239PU), which have already undergone a certain period of storage, or fragments nuclear charges. With such experiments, a undermining of a chemical explosive is made, the explosive wave of which crimsures the studied materials (in the case of nuclear charge fragments, the compression does not occur from all parties to avoid the occurrence of a nuclear reaction).
In general, similar experiments allow researchers to obtain ideas about what is happening in nuclear charges. physical processes, determine the residual shelf life of warheads and confirm their reliability. In addition, thanks to such experiments it becomes possible to estimate the impact. long storage The design of the warheads and materials used in them, as well as the possibility of replacing some materials by others.
Learn the destruction of the potential of a nuclear charge of the need is no longer. During the previous nuclear explosions in 1954-1990, scientists received sufficient data in the USSR to predict the effects of a nuclear explosion of a given power produced on Earth, under the ground, in the air, on water or under water. On one polygon on the new land, 130 nuclear explosions were produced (1 ground, 3 underwater, 85 air, 2 supervine and 39 underground), including the test of the 58 megaton bomb, An602.
With non-nuclear explosive tests, the proportion of energy release during an explosion of directly nuclear substance does not exceed 0.1 micrograms in TNT equivalent or 0.0041 joule. The experiments conducted in Russia have four degrees of protection, which are considered to fully eliminate any negative consequences, It seems to leakage radioactive materials into the soil or water. When conducting pre-critical nuclear tests, researchers are not further 30 meters from the epicenter.
When preparing for testing, the layout of the nuclear device is placed in a special container covered with bentonite clay. This container is descended in a pre-prepared gallery, which is then concreted.
In the explosion, the main protective function performs the container, however, in the event of its breakthrough, the bentonite clay glass under the influence of heat from chemical explosives, scoring possible cracks in the gallery and blocking parts of the nuclear device in the glass mass.
Why it was now that there were reports about the resumption of Russia subcritical nuclear tests, it is not clear. It is curious that Russia never declared about the cessation of this kind of experiments. Moreover, in September 2010, Vladimir Verkhovtsov, who then occupied the position of head of the 12th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, stated that non-nuclear explosive experiments were held in the country.
« In the absence of full-scale nuclear tests with a mandatory tool for controlling the health, reliability and safety of nuclear charges are non-nuclear explosive experiments, which are not accompanied by the release of nuclear energy"Treated by the Verkhovtsy, noting that such tests are carried out jointly by the Ministry of Defense of Russia and the State Corporation Rosatom on the central landfill on the new land.
Laser in law
Subcritical nuclear tests, in fact, are a kind of loophole, which allows to bypass the position of the CTBT. The relevance of such experiments in last years significantly increased not only in Russia, but also in the United States and other countries nuclear clubwho have formed their main stocks of such weapons in 1960-1970.
Subcritical tests allow not only to extend the service life or to modernize the existing nuclear warheads, but also to develop new ones. In the latter case, computer simulation is also actively used. However, in the suitability of subcritical tests to develop new weapons, not all experts are confident.
CTBT
The contract on the comprehensive prohibition of nuclear testing has so far signed 182 states. It was not signed by India, Pakistan and North Korea, which have nuclear weapons. The contract ratified 157 countries, but the United States, China, Israel, Iran and Egypt from its ratification refused.Control over the execution of the contract until he entered into force is engaged international System Monitoring, which consists of 170 seismic stations, 60 infrasound, 80 radionuclide and 11 hydroacoustic laboratories located worldwide. Such a system allows you to detect nuclear explosions with a capacity of at least 0.1 kilotons in TNT equivalent, and for some areas of the Earth, this threshold is 0.01 kilotons.
In November 2011, the British group of Trident Commission, created by the US-British Basic Research Organization, published a report that the costs of the development of nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States in the next ten years will amount to about 770 billion dollars. Most The amount of this amount is 700 billion dollars - the United States will spend on their nuclear weapons. We are talking About the modernization of W78 warheads, extending the timing of the W76 warhead service, B61 bombs, developing a new NGB bombard, a strategic nuclear submarine SSBN (X) and new missiles.
Russia will spend its 70 billion dollars to deploy new mobile complexes , adoption of modernized missiles (project), new ICBMs, submarines of the project 955 "Borey", developing promising aviation complex far aviation (), as well as the extension of the service life of the already existing strategic weapons.
The budget for 2011-2013, approved by the State Duma of Russia at the end of 2010, provides for an increase in spending on nuclear complex Almost 4 billion rubles. In 2010, the costs of the nuclear-weapon complex of Russia amounted to 18.8 billion rubles, in 2011 this figure increased to 26.9 billion rubles, in 2012 - up to 27.5 billion rubles, and in 2013 this The indicator will be 30.3 billion rubles.
The increase in the pace of non-nuclear explosive experiments is also evidence that the major world powers entered a new racing phase nuclear weapons. Despite the legally enshrined START-3 treaty, the desire to reduce the number of nuclear warheads, the United States and Russia moved to the qualitative improvement of such weapons. This was facilitated, in particular, the US decision to deploy the system anti-missile defense in Europe.
In 2006, visiting new land, Sergei Ivanov, who then held the post of Minister of Defense of Russia, said that the landfill on the archipelago was supported in permanent readiness And nuclear tests can be resumed at it at any time. At the same time, he noted that some countries did not ratify the CTBT, and this means that Russia in the interests of its own security, if necessary, resume full-scale nuclear tests.
Loading...
