Russia has released to the public a previously secret video showing the largest nuclear explosion in history, caused when the USSR detonated the so-called Tsar bomb almost 60 years ago.
This hydrogen bomb, which had a force of 50 million tons of conventional explosives, was detonated in a test carried out on October 30, 1961 at an altitude of 4 kilometers over New Zembla, a Russian archipelago located in the Barents Sea, in the Arctic ocean. It was launched by a modified Tupolev Tu-95 bomber.
The film shows an immense ball of fire and a mushroom rising 60 kilometers high after lighting up the sky. The views were captured from various angles by cameras installed on the ground and aboard two Soviet aircraft.
“The test of an exceptionally powerful hydrogen charge … confirmed that the Soviet Union is in possession of a thermonuclear weapon of 50 megatons of power, 100 megatons and more,” the narrator is heard saying.
The documentary video was released last week by the state nuclear agency Rosatom, as part of an event marking the 75th anniversary of Russia’s atomic industry. It lasts 40 minutes and can be seen below:
Due to its enormous size, this bomb was impractical for actual use, and was created primarily for scientific research and propaganda purposes due to intense rivalry in the Cold War. There is no record of the construction of another bomb of similar power.
Credit: Reuters
