RDS 37 nuclear test 1955

On 22 November 1955 the USSR conducted its first test of a multi-stage thermonuclear device. The device, the RDS-37, was designed as a nuclear gravity bomb with a full yield of about 3 megatons. The test version was modified to reduce the yield to an expected megatons, to reduce the risk to the local population. It was airdropped from a Tupolev-95 bomber over Technical Area Sh (“Ground Zero“) at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. It detonated with a yield of 1.6 megatons at altitude of 1,550 me