MOSCOW (RUSSIA) – Russia has released declassified footage of the world’s largest nuclear explosion which took place when the erstwhile USSR detonated the Tsar Bomba 60 years ago.
It was a hydrogen bomb, which carried the force of 50 million tons of conventional explosives, and it was detonated in October 1961, 4,000 metres over the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, which is above the Arctic Circle.
The footage reveals a 60-km high mushroom cloud after the explosion illuminated the sky. The footage was captured from ground cameras as well as those fixed on aircraft.
“The testing of an exceptionally powerful hydrogen load … confirmed that the Soviet Union is in possession of a thermo-nuclear weapon with power of 50 megatons, 100 megatons and more,” says a narrator in the video.
Rosatom published the documentary last week as part of events to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the country’s atomic industry.
The bomb was developed between 1956 and 1961 during the USSR’s nuclear race with the US. Tsar Bomba, nicknamed the king of bombs, was supposed to be the largest hydrogen bomb and was 3,300 times as destructive as the one that wiped out Hiroshima.
The documentary shows the transportation of the 26-tonne weapon in an aviation bomb casing by train and the post-blast measurement of the nuclear fallout.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.
