50 Megaton Tsar Bomba Declassified • Ivan RDS-220 Hydrogen Bomb

Subscribe to Nuclear Vault Credit: Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation The Soviet RDS-220 hydrogen bomb (code name Ivan or Vanya), also known as Tsar Bomba (Russian: Царь-бо́мба, tr. Tsar’-bómba, IPA: [t͡sarʲ ˈbombə], lit. ’Tsar bomb’), was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested. Tested on 30 October 1961 as an experimental verification of calculation principles and multi-stage thermonuclear weapon designs, it also remains the most powerful human-made explosive ever detonated. The bomb was detonated 4000 m above the Sukhoy Nos (“Dry Nose“) cape of Severny Island, Novaya Zemlya, 15 km (9.3 mi) from Mityushikha Bay, north of Matochkin Strait. The detonation was secret but was detected by US Intelligence agencies. The US apparently had an instrumented KC-135R aircraft (Operation SpeedLight) in the area of the test – close enough to have been scorched by the blast. The bhangmeter results and