© Nikolai Moshkov/TASS
TASS-FILE. 55 years ago, October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union has tested on Novaya Zemlya (Arkhangelsk oblast) the world’s most powerful fusion device – pilot aviation hydrogen bomb capacity of about 58 megatons of TNT (“a product 602”; unofficial title: “the Tsar bomb”, “gruel”). Thermonuclear charge was dropped from a converted strategic bomber Tu-95 and undermined at the height of 3.7 m above the ground.
Nuclear and thermonuclear weapons
The basis of nuclear (atomic) weapons is put an uncontrolled chain reaction of fission of heavy nuclei.