uniladtech homepage
  • News
    • Tech News
    • AI
  • Gadgets
    • Apple
    • iPhone
  • Gaming
    • Playstation
    • Xbox
  • Science
    • News
    • Space
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
  • Vehicles
    • Car News
  • Social Media
    • WhatsApp
    • YouTube
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Archive
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
TikTok
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Submit Your Content
Declassified footage of most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated was top secret for decades

Home> Science> News

Published 14:30 10 Nov 2023 GMT

Declassified footage of most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated was top secret for decades

It was kept top secret for decades

Niamh Spence

Niamh Spence

google discoverFollow us on Google Discover
Featured Image Credit: ROSATOM
Science

Advert

Advert

Advert

Footage of the biggest nuclear explosion ever seen was kept top secret for decades, until it was finally released by Russia three years ago.

The footage depicts the horrifying devastation that a nuclear bomb can cause.

Check it out here:

Advert

The full 40-minute video, that was previously classified, was released in August 2020 by the country's state-run nuclear division ROSATOM.

The huge device was detonated on 30 October 1961 at Mityushikha Bay on the deserted Novaya Zemlya island.

It was called the Tsar Bomba, or Tsar Bomb, in the West - the king of bombs. It's a hydrogen bomb with 50 megatons - or 50 million tons - of explosive.

To put that into context, it was 3,800 times more powerful than the bomb that killed 140,000 when it was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

It was also far more destructive than the largest hydrogen bomb the United States had ever set off back in 1954, a 15 megaton device.

The shocking footage was released three years ago on 20 August 2020 to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Russia's nuclear industry, with a large portion of the video depicting the country's journey to the top of the nuclear tree.

The weapon itself was huge, weighing a massive 27 tons and about eight meters in length. In order for it to be dropped, some of the fuel tanks had to be removed from the Tu-95V Soviet bomber.

It was detonated at around 4,000 metres above ground.

The explosion was so powerful the blast was visible from an incredible 997km (620 miles).

The mushroom cloud stretched 67km (42 miles) into the air, making it about seven times higher than Mount Everest, and reports claim it destroyed buildings within 55km (35 miles) of it.

The explosion was so powerful the bomber was hit by the shockwave about 70 miles away.
ROSATOM

It was also later found that the Tsar Bomb could, potentially, have been even more powerful than it was. It was originally designed to deliver a colossal 100-megaton blast, but was scaled down in order to protect the wider population from the explosion.

This also wasn't the only powerful detonation Russia carried out during this time. Throughout the early 1960s, the Soviet Union completed several other tests with forces ranging between 20 and 24 megatons.

The Tsar Bomb, however, was one of the last above ground nuclear tests ever carried out as the US, UK, and the Soviet Union signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which stated that all future tests had to be carried out beneath ground.

Choose your content:

2 hours ago
7 hours ago
a day ago
  • Chip Somodevilla / Staff via Getty
    2 hours ago

    Anonymous call out White House over bizarre Earth Day post

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom has also called out President Trump's environmental policies

    Science
  • BlackJack3D / Getty
    2 hours ago

    Scientists discover new alphacoronavirus with pandemic potential

    This could potentially snowball into a global pandemic

    Science
  • Arab Heritage Memorial Chapel
    7 hours ago

    Final messages from UFO-linked scientist raise questions about official ruling on their death

    The chilling messages have been revealed by a close associate

    Science
  • Henryk Welle / Getty
    a day ago

    Scientists discover vast magma reservoir beneath Tuscany comparable in size to Yellowstone supervolcanoes

    The magma sits between 8 and 15km below the surface

    Science
  • YouTuber faces federal charges after posting footage of one of the most top-secret US facilities
  • Long lost photos of 'Egypt's Area 51' reveal secret underground complex that's been hidden for decades
  • Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin could hold the secret to putting humans on the Moon for life with new discovery
  • Nuclear expert explains exactly what would happen to you if you saw an atomic bomb explode