How a nuclear warhead is designed and works. How does a nuclear (nuclear) reactor work?

But this is something we often don’t know. And why nuclear bomb explodes too...

Let's start from afar. Every atom has a nucleus, and the nucleus consists of protons and neutrons - perhaps everyone knows this. In the same way, everyone saw the periodic table. But why are the chemical elements placed in it this way and not otherwise? Certainly not because Mendeleev wanted it that way. Serial number of each element in the table indicates how many protons are in the nucleus of that element's atom. In other words, iron is number 26 in the table because there are 26 protons in an iron atom. And if there are not 26 of them, it is no longer iron.

But there can be different numbers of neutrons in the nuclei of the same element, which means that the mass of the nuclei can be different. Atoms of the same element with different masses are called isotopes. Uranium has several such isotopes: the most common in nature is uranium-238 (its nucleus has 92 protons and 146 neutrons, totaling 238). It is radioactive, but you cannot make a nuclear bomb from it. But the isotope uranium-235, a small amount of which is found in uranium ores, is suitable for a nuclear charge.

The reader may have come across the expressions “enriched uranium” and “depleted uranium”. Enriched uranium contains more uranium-235 than natural uranium; in a depleted state, correspondingly, less. Enriched uranium can be used to produce plutonium, another element suitable for a nuclear bomb (it is almost never found in nature). How uranium is enriched and how plutonium is obtained from it is a topic for a separate discussion.

So why does a nuclear bomb explode? The fact is that some heavy nuclei tend to decay if they are hit by a neutron. And you won’t have to wait long for a free neutron – there are a lot of them flying around. So, such a neutron hits the uranium-235 nucleus and thereby breaks it into “fragments”. This releases a few more neutrons. Can you guess what will happen if there are nuclei of the same element around? That's right, a chain reaction will occur. This is how it happens.

IN nuclear reactor, where uranium-235 is “dissolved” in the more stable uranium-238, an explosion does not occur under normal conditions. Most of the neutrons that fly out of decaying nuclei fly away into the milk, without finding the uranium-235 nuclei. In the reactor, the decay of nuclei occurs “sluggishly” (but this is enough for the reactor to provide energy). In a single piece of uranium-235, if it is of sufficient mass, neutrons will be guaranteed to break up the nuclei, the chain reaction will start as an avalanche, and... Stop! After all, if you make a piece of uranium-235 or plutonium with the mass required for an explosion, it will explode immediately. This is not the point.

And if you take two pieces of subcritical mass and push them against each other using a mechanism on remote control? For example, place both in a tube and attach a powder charge to one so that at the right moment one piece, like a projectile, is fired at the other. Here is the solution to the problem.

You can do it differently: take a spherical piece of plutonium and attach explosive charges over its entire surface. When these charges detonate on command from the outside, their explosion will compress the plutonium from all sides, compress it to a critical density, and a chain reaction will occur. However, accuracy and reliability are important here: all explosive charges must go off at the same time. If some of them work, and some don’t, or some work late, no nuclear explosion will result: the plutonium will not be compressed to a critical mass, but will dissipate in the air. Instead of a nuclear bomb, you will get a so-called “dirty” one.

This is what an implosion-type nuclear bomb looks like. The charges, which should create a directed explosion, are made in the form of polyhedra in order to cover the surface of the plutonium sphere as tightly as possible.

The first type of device was called a cannon device, the second type - an implosion device.
The "Little Boy" bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a uranium-235 charge and a cannon-type device. The Fat Man bomb, detonated over Nagasaki, carried a plutonium charge, and the explosive device was implosion. Nowadays, gun-type devices are almost never used; implosion ones are more complicated, but at the same time they allow you to regulate the mass of the nuclear charge and spend it more rationally. And plutonium has replaced uranium-235 as a nuclear explosive.

Quite a few years passed, and physicists offered the military an even more powerful bomb - a thermonuclear bomb, or, as it is also called, a hydrogen bomb. It turns out that hydrogen explodes more powerfully than plutonium?

Hydrogen is indeed explosive, but not that explosive. However, there is no “ordinary” hydrogen in a hydrogen bomb; it uses its isotopes – deuterium and tritium. The nucleus of “ordinary” hydrogen has one neutron, deuterium has two, and tritium has three.

In a nuclear bomb, the nuclei of a heavy element are divided into nuclei of lighter ones. In thermonuclear fusion, the reverse process occurs: light nuclei merge with each other into heavier ones. Deuterium and tritium nuclei, for example, combine to form helium nuclei (otherwise known as alpha particles), and the “extra” neutron is sent into “free flight.” This releases significantly more energy than during the decay of plutonium nuclei. By the way, this is exactly the process that takes place on the Sun.

However, the fusion reaction is possible only at ultra-high temperatures (which is why it is called thermonuclear). How to make deuterium and tritium react? Yes, it’s very simple: you need to use a nuclear bomb as a detonator!

Since deuterium and tritium are themselves stable, their charge in a thermonuclear bomb can be arbitrarily huge. This means that a thermonuclear bomb can be made incomparably more powerful than a “simple” nuclear one. The "Baby" dropped on Hiroshima had a TNT equivalent of around 18 kilotons, and the most powerful H-bomb(the so-called “Tsar Bomba”, also known as “Kuzka’s Mother”) – already 58.6 megatons, more than 3255 times more powerful than the “Baby”!


The “mushroom” cloud from the Tsar Bomba rose to a height of 67 kilometers, and the blast wave circled the globe three times.

However, such gigantic power is clearly excessive. Having “played enough” with megaton bombs, military engineers and physicists took a different path - the path of miniaturization of nuclear weapons. In their conventional form, nuclear weapons can be dropped from strategic bombers like aerial bombs or launched from ballistic missiles; if you miniaturize them, you get a compact nuclear charge that does not destroy everything for kilometers around, and which can be placed on an artillery shell or an air-to-ground missile. Mobility will increase and the range of tasks to be solved will expand. In addition to strategic nuclear weapons, we will receive tactical ones.

For tactical nuclear weapons, the most different means delivery - nuclear cannons, mortars, recoilless rifles (for example, the American Davy Crockett). The USSR even had a nuclear bullet project. True, it had to be abandoned - nuclear bullets were so unreliable, so complicated and expensive to manufacture and store that there was no point in them.

"Davy Crockett." A number of these nuclear weapons were in service with the US Armed Forces, and the West German Minister of Defense unsuccessfully sought to arm the Bundeswehr with them.

Speaking about small nuclear weapons, it is worth mentioning another type of nuclear weapon - the neutron bomb. The plutonium charge in it is small, but this is not necessary. If a thermonuclear bomb follows the path of increasing the force of the explosion, then a neutron bomb relies on another damaging factor - radiation. To enhance radiation, a neutron bomb contains a supply of beryllium isotope, which upon explosion produces a huge amount fast neutrons.

According to its creators, a neutron bomb should kill enemy personnel, but leave equipment intact, which can then be captured during an offensive. In practice, it turned out somewhat differently: irradiated equipment becomes unusable - anyone who dares to pilot it will very soon “earn” radiation sickness. This does not change the fact that a neutron bomb explosion is capable of hitting an enemy through tank armor; neutron ammunition was developed by the United States specifically as a weapon against Soviet tank formations. However, tank armor was soon developed that provided some kind of protection from the flow of fast neutrons.

Another type of nuclear weapon was invented in 1950, but never (as far as is known) produced. This is the so-called cobalt bomb - a nuclear charge with a cobalt shell. During the explosion, cobalt, irradiated by a stream of neutrons, becomes an extremely radioactive isotope and is scattered throughout the area, contaminating it. Just one such bomb of sufficient power could cover the entire globe with cobalt and destroy all of humanity. Fortunately, this project remained a project.

What can we say in conclusion? A nuclear bomb is a truly terrible weapon, and at the same time it (what a paradox!) helped maintain relative peace between the superpowers. If your enemy has nuclear weapons, you will think ten times before attacking him. No country with a nuclear arsenal has ever been attacked from outside, and there have been no wars between major states in the world since 1945. Let's hope there won't be any.

It is one of the most amazing, mysterious and terrible processes. The principle of operation of nuclear weapons is based on a chain reaction. This is a process whose very progress initiates its continuation. The principle of operation of a hydrogen bomb is based on fusion.

Atomic bomb

The nuclei of some isotopes of radioactive elements (plutonium, californium, uranium and others) are capable of decaying, while capturing a neutron. After this, two or three more neutrons are released. The destruction of the nucleus of one atom under ideal conditions can lead to the decay of two or three more, which in turn can initiate other atoms. And so on. An avalanche-like process of destruction takes place more nuclei with the release of a gigantic amount of energy to break atomic bonds. During an explosion, enormous energies are released in an extremely short period of time. This happens at one point. This is why the explosion of an atomic bomb is so powerful and destructive.

To initiate a chain reaction, the amount of radioactive substance must exceed a critical mass. Obviously, you need to take several parts of uranium or plutonium and combine them into one. However, this is not enough to cause an atomic bomb to explode, because the reaction will stop before enough energy is released, or the process will proceed slowly. In order to achieve success, it is necessary not only to exceed the critical mass of the substance, but to do this in an extremely short period of time. It is best to use several. This is achieved by using others, and alternating fast and slow explosives.

The first nuclear test was carried out in July 1945 in the USA near the town of Almogordo. In August of the same year, the Americans used these weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The explosion of an atomic bomb in the city led to terrible destruction and the death of most of the population. In the USSR, atomic weapons were created and tested in 1949.

H-bomb

It is a weapon with very great destructive power. The principle of its operation is based on which is the synthesis of heavier helium nuclei from lighter hydrogen atoms. This releases a very large amount of energy. This reaction is similar to the processes that occur on the Sun and other stars. Thermonuclear fusion occurs most easily using isotopes of hydrogen (tritium, deuterium) and lithium.

The Americans tested the first hydrogen warhead in 1952. In the modern understanding, this device can hardly be called a bomb. It was a three-story building filled with liquid deuterium. The first hydrogen bomb explosion in the USSR was carried out six months later. The Soviet thermonuclear munition RDS-6 was detonated in August 1953 near Semipalatinsk. The USSR tested the largest hydrogen bomb with a yield of 50 megatons (Tsar Bomba) in 1961. The wave after the explosion of the ammunition circled the planet three times.

North Korea threatens US with super-powerful hydrogen bomb tests Pacific Ocean. Japan, which may suffer as a result of the tests, called North Korea's plans completely unacceptable. Presidents Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un argue in interviews and talk about open military conflict. For those who do not understand nuclear weapons, but want to be in the know, The Futurist has compiled a guide.

How do nuclear weapons work?

Like a regular stick of dynamite, a nuclear bomb uses energy. Only it is not released during the primitive chemical reaction, but in complex nuclear processes. There are two main ways to extract nuclear energy from an atom. IN nuclear fission the nucleus of an atom decays into two smaller fragments with a neutron. Nuclear fusion – the process by which the Sun produces energy – involves the joining of two smaller atoms to form a larger one. In any process, fission or fusion, large amounts of thermal energy and radiation are released. Depending on whether nuclear fission or fusion is used, bombs are divided into nuclear (atomic) And thermonuclear .

Can you tell me more about nuclear fission?

Atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima (1945)

As you remember, an atom is made up of three types of subatomic particles: protons, neutrons and electrons. The center of the atom, called core , consists of protons and neutrons. Protons are positively charged, electrons are negatively charged, and neutrons have no charge at all. The proton-electron ratio is always one to one, so the atom as a whole has a neutral charge. For example, a carbon atom has six protons and six electrons. Particles are held together by a fundamental force - strong nuclear force .

The properties of an atom can change significantly depending on how many different particles it contains. If you change the number of protons, you will have a different chemical element. If you change the number of neutrons, you get isotope the same element that you have in your hands. For example, carbon has three isotopes: 1) carbon-12 (six protons + six neutrons), which is a stable and common form of the element, 2) carbon-13 (six protons + seven neutrons), which is stable but rare, and 3) carbon -14 (six protons + eight neutrons), which is rare and unstable (or radioactive).

Most atomic nuclei are stable, but some are unstable (radioactive). These nuclei spontaneously emit particles that scientists call radiation. This process is called radioactive decay . There are three types of decay:

Alpha decay : The nucleus emits an alpha particle - two protons and two neutrons bound together. Beta decay : A neutron turns into a proton, electron and antineutrino. The ejected electron is a beta particle. Spontaneous fission: the nucleus disintegrates into several parts and emits neutrons, and also emits a pulse of electromagnetic energy - a gamma ray. It is the latter type of decay that is used in a nuclear bomb. Free neutrons emitted as a result of fission begin chain reaction , which releases a colossal amount of energy.

What are nuclear bombs made of?

They can be made from uranium-235 and plutonium-239. Uranium occurs in nature as a mixture of three isotopes: 238 U (99.2745% of natural uranium), 235 U (0.72%) and 234 U (0.0055%). The most common 238 U does not support a chain reaction: only 235 U is capable of this. To achieve maximum explosion power, it is necessary that the content of 235 U in the “filling” of the bomb is at least 80%. Therefore, uranium is produced artificially enrich . To do this, the mixture of uranium isotopes is divided into two parts so that one of them contains more than 235 U.

Typically, isotope separation leaves behind a lot of depleted uranium that is unable to undergo a chain reaction—but there is a way to make it do so. The fact is that plutonium-239 does not occur in nature. But it can be obtained by bombarding 238 U with neutrons.

How is their power measured?

​The power of a nuclear and thermonuclear charge is measured in TNT equivalent - the amount of trinitrotoluene that must be detonated to obtain a similar result. It is measured in kilotons (kt) and megatons (Mt). The yield of ultra-small nuclear weapons is less than 1 kt, while super-powerful bombs yield more than 1 mt.

The power of the Soviet “Tsar Bomb” was, according to various sources, from 57 to 58.6 megatons in TNT equivalent; the power of the thermonuclear bomb, which the DPRK tested in early September, was about 100 kilotons.

Who created nuclear weapons?

American physicist Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves

In the 1930s, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi demonstrated that elements bombarded by neutrons could be transformed into new elements. The result of this work was the discovery slow neutrons , as well as the discovery of new elements not presented on periodic table. Soon after Fermi's discovery, German scientists Otto Hahn And Fritz Strassmann bombarded uranium with neutrons, resulting in the formation of a radioactive isotope of barium. They concluded that low-speed neutrons cause the uranium nucleus to break into two smaller pieces.

This work excited the minds of the whole world. At Princeton University Niels Bohr worked with John Wheeler to develop a hypothetical model of the fission process. They suggested that uranium-235 undergoes fission. Around the same time, other scientists discovered that the fission process produced even more neutrons. This prompted Bohr and Wheeler to ask important question: Could the free neutrons created by fission start a chain reaction that would release enormous amounts of energy? If this is so, then it is possible to create weapons of unimaginable power. Their assumptions were confirmed by a French physicist Frederic Joliot-Curie . His conclusion became the impetus for developments in the creation of nuclear weapons.

Physicists from Germany, England, the USA, and Japan worked on the creation of atomic weapons. Before the start of World War II Albert Einstein wrote to the US President Franklin Roosevelt that Nazi Germany plans to purify uranium-235 and create an atomic bomb. It now turns out that Germany was far from carrying out a chain reaction: they were working on a “dirty”, highly radioactive bomb. Be that as it may, the US government threw all its efforts into creating an atomic bomb as soon as possible. The Manhattan Project was launched, led by an American physicist Robert Oppenheimer and general Leslie Groves . It was attended by prominent scientists who emigrated from Europe. By the summer of 1945, atomic weapons were created based on two types of fissile material - uranium-235 and plutonium-239. One bomb, the plutonium “Thing,” was detonated during testing, and two more, the uranium “Baby” and the plutonium “Fat Man,” were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

How does a thermonuclear bomb work and who invented it?

Thermonuclear bomb is based on the reaction nuclear fusion . Unlike nuclear fission, which can occur either spontaneously or forcedly, nuclear fusion is impossible without the supply of external energy. Atomic nuclei are positively charged - so they repel each other. This situation is called the Coulomb barrier. To overcome repulsion, these particles must be accelerated to crazy speeds. This can be done at very high temperatures - on the order of several million Kelvin (hence the name). There are three types of thermonuclear reactions: self-sustaining (take place in the depths of stars), controlled and uncontrolled or explosive - they are used in hydrogen bombs.

The idea of ​​a bomb with thermonuclear fusion initiated by an atomic charge was proposed by Enrico Fermi to his colleague Edward Teller back in 1941, at the very beginning of the Manhattan Project. However, then this idea was not in demand. Teller's developments were improved Stanislav Ulam , making the idea of ​​a thermonuclear bomb feasible in practice. In 1952, the first thermonuclear explosive device was tested on Enewetak Atoll during Operation Ivy Mike. However, it was a laboratory sample, unsuitable for combat. One year later Soviet Union exploded the world's first thermonuclear bomb, assembled according to the design of physicists Andrey Sakharov And Yulia Kharitona . The device resembled a layer cake, so the formidable weapon was nicknamed “Puff”. In the course of further development, the most powerful bomb on Earth, the “Tsar Bomba” or “Kuzka’s Mother,” was born. In October 1961, it was tested on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.

What are thermonuclear bombs made of?

If you thought that hydrogen and thermonuclear bombs are different things, you were wrong. These words are synonymous. It is hydrogen (or rather, its isotopes - deuterium and tritium) that is required to carry out thermo nuclear reaction. However, there is a difficulty: in order to detonate a hydrogen bomb, it is first necessary to obtain a high temperature during a conventional nuclear explosion - only then will the atomic nuclei begin to react. Therefore, in the case of a thermonuclear bomb, design plays a big role.

Two schemes are widely known. The first is Sakharov’s “puff pastry”. In the center was a nuclear detonator, which was surrounded by layers of lithium deuteride mixed with tritium, which were interspersed with layers of enriched uranium. This design made it possible to achieve a power within 1 Mt. The second is the American Teller-Ulam scheme, where the nuclear bomb and hydrogen isotopes were located separately. It looked like this: below there was a container with a mixture of liquid deuterium and tritium, in the center of which there was a “spark plug” - a plutonium rod, and on top - a regular nuclear charge, and all this in a shell of heavy metal(for example, depleted uranium). Fast neutrons produced during the explosion cause atomic fission reactions in the uranium shell and add energy to the total energy of the explosion. Adding additional layers of lithium uranium-238 deuteride makes it possible to create projectiles of unlimited power. In 1953, Soviet physicist Victor Davidenko accidentally repeated the Teller-Ulam idea, and on its basis Sakharov came up with a multi-stage scheme that made it possible to create weapons of unprecedented power. “Kuzka’s Mother” worked exactly according to this scheme.

What other bombs are there?

There are also neutron ones, but this is generally scary. Essentially, a neutron bomb is a low-power thermonuclear bomb, 80% of the explosion energy of which is radiation (neutron radiation). It looks like an ordinary low-power nuclear charge, to which a block with a beryllium isotope, a source of neutrons, has been added. When a nuclear charge explodes, a thermonuclear reaction is triggered. This type of weapon was developed by an American physicist Samuel Cohen . It was believed that neutron weapons destroy all living things even in shelters, but the range of destruction of such weapons is small, since the atmosphere disperses streams of fast neutrons, and the shock wave long distances turns out to be stronger.

What about the cobalt bomb?

No, son, this is fantastic. Officially, no country has cobalt bombs. Theoretically, this is a thermonuclear bomb with a cobalt shell, which ensures strong radioactive contamination of the area even with a relatively weak nuclear explosion. 510 tons of cobalt can infect the entire surface of the Earth and destroy all life on the planet. Physicist Leo Szilard , who described this hypothetical design in 1950, called it the "Doomsday Machine".

What's cooler: a nuclear bomb or a thermonuclear one?

Full-scale model of "Tsar Bomba"

The hydrogen bomb is much more advanced and technologically advanced than the atomic bomb. Its explosive power far exceeds that of an atomic one and is limited only by the number of available components. In a thermonuclear reaction, much more energy is released for each nucleon (the so-called constituent nuclei, protons and neutrons) than in a nuclear reaction. For example, the fission of a uranium nucleus produces 0.9 MeV (megaelectronvolt) per nucleon, and the fusion of a helium nucleus from hydrogen nuclei releases an energy of 6 MeV.

Like bombs deliverto the goal?

At first they were dropped from aircraft, but air defense systems were constantly improving, and delivering nuclear weapons in this way turned out to be unwise. With the growth of missile production, all rights to deliver nuclear weapons were transferred to ballistic and cruise missiles of various bases. Therefore, a bomb now means not a bomb, but a warhead.

It is believed that the North Korean hydrogen bomb is too large to be mounted on a rocket - so if the DPRK decides to carry out the threat, it will be carried by ship to the explosion site.

What are the consequences of a nuclear war?

Hiroshima and Nagasaki are just small part possible apocalypse. ​For example, the “nuclear winter” hypothesis is known, which was put forward by the American astrophysicist Carl Sagan and the Soviet geophysicist Georgy Golitsyn. It is assumed that if several nuclear warheads explode (not in the desert or water, but in populated areas) many fires will break out and large amounts of smoke and soot will be released into the atmosphere, leading to global cooling. The hypothesis is criticized by comparing the effect with volcanic activity, which has little effect on the climate. In addition, some scientists note that global warming is more likely to occur than cooling - although both sides hope that we will never know.

Are nuclear weapons allowed?

After the arms race in the 20th century, countries came to their senses and decided to limit the use of nuclear weapons. The UN adopted treaties on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the ban on nuclear tests (the latter was not signed by the young nuclear powers India, Pakistan, and the DPRK). In July 2017, a new treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons was adopted.

“Each State Party undertakes never under any circumstances to develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices,” states the first article of the treaty. .

However, the document will not come into force until 50 states ratify it.

Hundreds of thousands of famous and forgotten gunsmiths of antiquity fought in search of the ideal weapon, capable of evaporating an enemy army with one click. From time to time, a trace of these searches can be found in fairy tales that more or less plausibly describe a miracle sword or a bow that hits without missing.

Fortunately, technological progress moved so slowly for a long time that the real embodiment of the devastating weapon remained in dreams and oral stories, and later on the pages of books. The scientific and technological leap of the 19th century provided the conditions for the creation of the main phobia of the 20th century. The nuclear bomb, created and tested under real conditions, revolutionized both military affairs and politics.

History of the creation of weapons

For a long time it was believed that the most powerful weapons could only be created using explosives. The discoveries of scientists who worked with the smallest particles provided scientific evidence that with the help elementary particles enormous energy can be generated. The first in a series of researchers can be called Becquerel, who in 1896 discovered the radioactivity of uranium salts.

Uranium itself has been known since 1786, but at that time no one suspected its radioactivity. Scientists' work on turn of the 19th century and twentieth centuries revealed not only special physical properties, but also the possibility of obtaining energy from radioactive substances.

The option of making weapons based on uranium was first described in detail, published and patented by French physicists, the Joliot-Curies in 1939.

Despite its value for weapons, the scientists themselves were strongly opposed to the creation of such a devastating weapon.

Having gone through the Second World War in the Resistance, in the 1950s the couple (Frederick and Irene), realizing the destructive power of war, advocated for general disarmament. They are supported by Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein and other prominent physicists of the time.

Meanwhile, while the Joliot-Curies were busy with the problem of the Nazis in Paris, on the other side of the planet, in America, the world's first nuclear charge was being developed. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the work, was given the broadest powers and enormous resources. The end of 1941 marked the beginning of the Manhattan Project, which ultimately led to the creation of the first combat nuclear warhead.

In the town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, the first production facilities for weapons-grade uranium were erected. In the future the same nuclear centers are appearing all over the country, for example in Chicago, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and studies have been carried out in California. The best forces of the professors of American universities, as well as physicists who fled from Germany, were thrown into creating the bomb.

In the “Third Reich” itself, work on creating a new type of weapon was launched in a manner characteristic of the Fuhrer.

Since “Besnovaty” was more interested in tanks and planes, and the more the better, he did not see much need for a new miracle bomb.

Accordingly, projects not supported by Hitler moved at a snail's pace at best.

When things started to get hot, and it turned out that the tanks and planes were swallowed up by the Eastern Front, the new miracle weapon received support. But it was too late; in conditions of bombing and constant fear of Soviet tank wedges, it was not possible to create a device with a nuclear component.

The Soviet Union was more attentive to the possibility of creating a new type of destructive weapon. In the pre-war period, physicists collected and consolidated general knowledge about nuclear energy and the possibility of creating nuclear weapons. Intelligence worked intensively throughout the entire period of the creation of the nuclear bomb both in the USSR and in the USA. The war played a significant role in slowing down the pace of development, as huge resources went to the front.

True, Academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov, with his characteristic tenacity, promoted the work of all subordinate departments in this direction. Looking ahead a little, it is he who will be tasked with accelerating the development of weapons in the face of the threat of an American strike on the cities of the USSR. It was he, standing in the gravel of a huge machine of hundreds and thousands of scientists and workers, who would be awarded the honorary title of the father of the Soviet nuclear bomb.

World's first tests

But let's return to the American nuclear program. By the summer of 1945, American scientists managed to create the world's first nuclear bomb. Any boy who has made himself or bought a powerful firecracker in a store experiences extraordinary torment, wanting to blow it up as quickly as possible. In 1945, hundreds of American soldiers and scientists experienced the same thing.

On June 16, 1945, the first ever nuclear weapons test and one of the most powerful explosions to date took place in the Alamogordo Desert, New Mexico.

Eyewitnesses watching the explosion from the bunker were amazed by the force with which the charge exploded at the top of the 30-meter steel tower. At first, everything was flooded with light, several times stronger than the sun. Then a fireball rose into the sky, turning into a column of smoke that took shape into the famous mushroom.

As soon as the dust settled, researchers and bomb creators rushed to the site of the explosion. They watched the aftermath from lead-encrusted Sherman tanks. What they saw amazed them; no weapon could cause such damage. The sand melted to glass in places.

Tiny remains of the tower were also found; in a crater of huge diameter, mutilated and crushed structures clearly illustrated the destructive power.

Damaging factors

This explosion provided the first information about the power of the new weapon, about what it could use to destroy the enemy. These are several factors:

• light radiation, flash, capable of blinding even protected organs of vision;
• shock wave, a dense stream of air moving from the center, destroying most buildings;
• an electromagnetic pulse that disables most equipment and does not allow the use of communications for the first time after the explosion;
• penetrating radiation, most dangerous factor for those who have taken refuge from other damaging factors, it is divided into alpha-beta-gamma irradiation;
• radioactive contamination that can negatively affect health and life for tens or even hundreds of years.

The further use of nuclear weapons, including in combat, showed all the peculiarities of their impact on living organisms and nature. August 6, 1945 was the last day for tens of thousands of residents of the small city of Hiroshima, then known for several important military installations.

The outcome of the war in the Pacific was a foregone conclusion, but the Pentagon believed that the operation on the Japanese archipelago would cost more than a million lives of US Marines. It was decided to kill several birds with one stone, take Japan out of the war, saving on the landing operation, test a new weapon and announce it to the whole world, and, above all, to the USSR.

At one o'clock in the morning, the plane carrying the "Baby" nuclear bomb took off on a mission.

The bomb, dropped over the city, exploded at an altitude of approximately 600 meters at 8.15 am. All buildings located at a distance of 800 meters from the epicenter were destroyed. The walls of only a few buildings, designed to withstand a magnitude 9 earthquake, survived.

Of every ten people who were within a radius of 600 meters at the time of the bomb explosion, only one could survive. The light radiation turned people into coal, leaving shadow marks on the stone, a dark imprint of the place where the person was. The ensuing blast wave was so strong that it could break glass at a distance of 19 kilometers from the explosion site.

One teenager was knocked out of the house through a window by a dense stream of air; upon landing, the guy saw the walls of the house folding like cards. The blast wave was followed by a fire tornado, destroying those few residents who survived the explosion and did not have time to leave the fire zone. Those at a distance from the explosion began to experience severe malaise, the cause of which was initially unclear to doctors.

Much later, a few weeks later, the term “radiation poisoning” was announced, now known as radiation sickness.

More than 280 thousand people became victims of just one bomb, both directly from the explosion and from subsequent illnesses.

The bombing of Japan with nuclear weapons did not end there. According to the plan, only four to six cities were to be hit, but weather conditions only allowed Nagasaki to be hit. In this city, more than 150 thousand people became victims of the Fat Man bomb.

Promises American government carrying out such attacks before Japan's surrender led to a truce, and then to the signing of an agreement that ended World War. But for nuclear weapons this was just the beginning.

The most powerful bomb in the world

The post-war period was marked by the confrontation between the USSR bloc and its allies with the USA and NATO. In the 1940s, the Americans seriously considered the possibility of striking the Soviet Union. To contain the former ally, work on creating a bomb had to be accelerated, and already in 1949, on August 29, the US monopoly in nuclear weapons was ended. During the arms race greatest attention deserve two nuclear tests.

Bikini Atoll, known primarily for frivolous swimsuits, literally made a splash throughout the world in 1954 due to the testing of a specially powerful nuclear charge.

The Americans, having decided to test a new design of atomic weapons, did not calculate the charge. As a result, the explosion was 2.5 times more powerful than planned. Residents of nearby islands, as well as the ubiquitous Japanese fishermen, were under attack.

But it was not the most powerful American bomb. In 1960, the B41 nuclear bomb was put into service, but it never underwent full testing due to its power. The force of the charge was calculated theoretically, for fear of exploding such a dangerous weapon at the test site.

The Soviet Union, which loved to be the first in everything, experienced in 1961, otherwise nicknamed “Kuzka’s mother.”

Responding to America's nuclear blackmail, Soviet scientists created the most powerful bomb in the world. Tested on Novaya Zemlya, it left its mark in almost all corners of the globe. According to recollections, a slight earthquake was felt in the most remote corners at the time of the explosion.

The blast wave, of course, having lost all its destructive power, was able to circle the Earth. To date, this is the most powerful nuclear bomb in the world created and tested by mankind. Of course, if his hands were free, Kim Jong-un's nuclear bomb would be more powerful, but he does not have New Earth to test it.

Atomic bomb device

Let's consider a very primitive, purely for understanding, device of an atomic bomb. There are many classes of atomic bombs, but let’s consider three main ones:

• uranium, based on uranium 235, first exploded over Hiroshima;
• plutonium, based on plutonium 239, first exploded over Nagasaki;
• thermonuclear, sometimes called hydrogen, based on heavy water with deuterium and tritium, fortunately not used against the population.

The first two bombs are based on the effect of heavy nuclei fissioning into smaller ones through an uncontrolled nuclear reaction, releasing huge amount energy. The third is based on the fusion of hydrogen nuclei (or rather its isotopes of deuterium and tritium) with the formation of helium, which is heavier in relation to hydrogen. For the same bomb weight, the destructive potential of a hydrogen bomb is 20 times greater.

If for uranium and plutonium it is enough to bring together a mass greater than the critical one (at which a chain reaction begins), then for hydrogen this is not enough.

To reliably connect several pieces of uranium into one, a cannon effect is used in which smaller pieces of uranium are shot into larger ones. Gunpowder can also be used, but for reliability, low-power explosives are used.

In a plutonium bomb, to create the necessary conditions for a chain reaction, explosives are placed around ingots containing plutonium. Due to the cumulative effect, as well as the neutron initiator located in the very center (beryllium with several milligrams of polonium) the necessary conditions are achieved.

It has a main charge, which cannot explode on its own, and a fuse. To create conditions for the fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei, we need unimaginable pressures and temperatures at at least one point. Next, a chain reaction will occur.

To create such parameters, the bomb includes a conventional, but low-power, nuclear charge, which is the fuse. Its detonation creates the conditions for the start of a thermonuclear reaction.

To estimate the power of an atomic bomb, the so-called “TNT equivalent” is used. An explosion is a release of energy, the most famous explosive in the world is TNT (TNT - trinitrotoluene), and all new types of explosives are equated to it. Bomb "Baby" - 13 kilotons of TNT. That is, equivalent to 13000.

Bomb "Fat Man" - 21 kilotons, "Tsar Bomba" - 58 megatons of TNT. It’s scary to think of 58 million tons of explosives concentrated in a mass of 26.5 tons, that’s how much weight this bomb has.

The danger of nuclear war and nuclear disasters

Appearing in the midst of terrible war XX century, nuclear weapons became the greatest danger to humanity. Immediately after World War II, the Cold War began, which several times almost escalated into a full-fledged nuclear conflict. The threat of the use of nuclear bombs and missiles by at least one side began to be discussed back in the 1950s.

Everyone understood and understands that there can be no winners in this war.

To contain it, efforts have been and are being made by many scientists and politicians. University of Chicago, using the opinions of invited nuclear scientists, including Nobel laureates, sets the Doomsday Clock a few minutes before midnight. Midnight signifies a nuclear cataclysm, the beginning of a new World War and the destruction of the old world. IN different years The clock hands fluctuated from 17 to 2 minutes to midnight.

There are also several known major accidents that occurred at nuclear power plants. These disasters have an indirect relation to weapons; nuclear power plants are still different from nuclear bombs, but they perfectly demonstrate the results of using the atom for military purposes. The largest of them:

• 1957, Kyshtym accident, due to a failure in the storage system, an explosion occurred near Kyshtym;
• 1957, Britain, in the north-west of England, security checks were not carried out;
• 1979, USA, due to an untimely detected leak, an explosion and release from a nuclear power plant occurred;
• 1986, tragedy in Chernobyl, explosion of the 4th power unit;
• 2011, accident at the Fukushima station, Japan.

Each of these tragedies left a heavy mark on the fate of hundreds of thousands of people and turned entire areas into non-residential zones with special control.

There were incidents that almost cost the start of a nuclear disaster. Soviet nuclear submarines have repeatedly had reactor-related accidents on board. The Americans dropped a Superfortress bomber with two Mark 39 nuclear bombs on board, with a yield of 3.8 megatons. But the activated “safety system” did not allow the charges to detonate and a disaster was avoided.

Nuclear weapons past and present

Today it is clear to anyone that nuclear war will destroy modern humanity. Meanwhile, the desire to possess nuclear weapons and enter the nuclear club, or rather, burst into it by knocking down the door, still excites the minds of some state leaders.

India and Pakistan created nuclear weapons without permission, and the Israelis are hiding the presence of a bomb.

For some, owning a nuclear bomb is a way to prove their importance on the international stage. For others, it is a guarantee of non-interference by winged democracy or other external factors. But the main thing is that these reserves do not go into business, for which they were really created.

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After the end of World War II, countries anti-Hitler coalition were rapidly trying to get ahead of each other in developing a more powerful nuclear bomb.

The first test, carried out by the Americans on real objects in Japan, heated the situation between the USSR and the USA to the limit. Powerful explosions that thundered through Japanese cities and practically destroyed all life in them forced Stalin to abandon many claims on the world stage. Most Soviet physicists were urgently “thrown” into the development of nuclear weapons.

When and how did nuclear weapons appear?

The year of birth of the atomic bomb can be considered 1896. It was then that the French chemist A. Becquerel discovered that uranium is radioactive. The chain reaction of uranium forms powerful energy, which serves as the basis for a terrible explosion. It is unlikely that Becquerel imagined that his discovery would lead to the creation of nuclear weapons - the most terrible weapon in the whole world.

The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century was a turning point in the history of the invention of nuclear weapons. It was during this time period that scientists from around the world were able to discover the following laws, rays and elements:

• Alpha, gamma and beta rays;
• Many isotopes have been discovered chemical elements having radioactive properties;
• The law of radioactive decay was discovered, which determines the time and quantitative dependence of the intensity of radioactive decay, depending on the number of radioactive atoms in the test sample;
• Nuclear isometry was born.

In the 1930s, they were able to split the atomic nucleus of uranium for the first time by absorbing neutrons. At the same time, positrons and neurons were discovered. All this gave a powerful impetus to the development of weapons that used atomic energy. In 1939, the world's first atomic bomb design was patented. This was done by a physicist from France, Frederic Joliot-Curie.

As a result of further research and development in this area, the nuclear bomb was born. The power and radius of destruction of modern atomic bombs is so great that a country that has nuclear potential practically does not need a powerful army, since one atomic bomb can destroy an entire state.

How does an atomic bomb work?

An atomic bomb consists of many elements, the main ones being:

• Atomic bomb body;
• Automation system that controls the explosion process;
• Nuclear charge or warhead.

The automation system is located in the body of the atomic bomb, along with the nuclear charge. The housing design must be reliable enough to protect the warhead from various external factors and impacts. For example, various mechanical, temperature or similar influences, which can lead to an unplanned explosion of enormous power that can destroy everything around.

The task of automation is full control over ensuring that the explosion occurs at the right time, so the system consists of the following elements:

• A device responsible for emergency detonation;
• Automation system power supply;
• Detonation sensor system;
• Cocking device;
• Safety device.

When the first tests were carried out, nuclear bombs were delivered on airplanes that managed to leave the affected area. Modern atomic bombs are so powerful that they can only be delivered using cruise, ballistic or at least anti-aircraft missiles.

Used in atomic bombs various systems detonation. The simplest of them is a conventional device that is triggered when a projectile hits a target.

One of the main characteristics of nuclear bombs and missiles is their division into calibers, which are of three types:

• Small, the power of atomic bombs of this caliber is equivalent to several thousand tons of TNT;
• Medium (explosion power – several tens of thousands of tons of TNT);
• Large, the charge power of which is measured in millions of tons of TNT.

It is interesting that most often the power of all nuclear bombs is measured precisely in TNT equivalent, since atomic weapons do not have their own scale for measuring the power of the explosion.

Algorithms for the operation of nuclear bombs

Any atomic bomb operates on the principle of using nuclear energy, which is released during a nuclear reaction. This procedure is based on either the division of heavy nuclei or the synthesis of light ones. Since during this reaction a huge amount of energy is released, and in shortest time, the radius of destruction of a nuclear bomb is very impressive. Because of this feature, nuclear weapons are classified as weapons of mass destruction.

During the process that is triggered by the explosion of an atomic bomb, there are two main points:

• This is the immediate center of the explosion, where the nuclear reaction takes place;
• The epicenter of the explosion, which is located at the site where the bomb exploded.

The nuclear energy released during the explosion of an atomic bomb is so strong that seismic tremors begin on the earth. At the same time, these tremors cause direct destruction only at a distance of several hundred meters (although if you take into account the force of the explosion of the bomb itself, these tremors no longer affect anything).

Factors of damage during a nuclear explosion

The explosion of a nuclear bomb does not only cause terrible instant destruction. The consequences of this explosion will be felt not only by people caught in the affected area, but also by their children born after the atomic explosion. Types of destruction by atomic weapons are divided into the following groups:

• Light radiation that occurs directly during an explosion;
• The shock wave propagated by the bomb immediately after the explosion;
• Electromagnetic pulse;
• Penetrating radiation;
• Radioactive contamination that can last for decades.

Although at first glance a flash of light appears to be the least threatening, it is actually the result of the release of enormous amounts of heat and light energy. Its power and strength far exceeds the power of the sun's rays, so damage from light and heat can be fatal at a distance of several kilometers.

The radiation released during an explosion is also very dangerous. Although it does not act for long, it manages to infect everything around, since its penetrating power is incredibly high.

The shock wave during an atomic explosion acts similarly to the same wave during conventional explosions, only its power and radius of destruction are much greater. In a few seconds, it causes irreparable damage not only to people, but also to equipment, buildings and the surrounding environment.

Penetrating radiation provokes the development of radiation sickness, and the electromagnetic pulse poses a danger only to equipment. The combination of all these factors, plus the power of the explosion, makes the atomic bomb the most dangerous weapon in the world.

The world's first nuclear weapons tests

The first country to develop and test nuclear weapons was the United States of America. It was the US government that allocated huge financial subsidies for the development of new promising weapons. By the end of 1941, many outstanding scientists in the field of atomic development were invited to the United States, who by 1945 were able to present a prototype atomic bomb suitable for testing.

The world's first tests of an atomic bomb equipped with an explosive device were carried out in the desert in New Mexico. The bomb, called "Gadget", was detonated on July 16, 1945. The test result was positive, although the military demanded that the nuclear bomb be tested in real combat conditions.

Seeing that there was only one step left before victory in the Nazi coalition, and such an opportunity might not arise again, the Pentagon decided to launch a nuclear strike on the last ally Hitler's Germany- Japan. In addition, the use of a nuclear bomb was supposed to solve several problems at once:

• To avoid the unnecessary bloodshed that would inevitably occur if US troops set foot on Imperial Japanese soil;
• With one blow, bring the unyielding Japanese to their knees, forcing them to accept terms favorable to the United States;
• Show the USSR (as a possible rival in the future) that the US Army has a unique weapon capable of wiping out any city from the face of the earth;
• And, of course, to see in practice what nuclear weapons are capable of in real combat conditions.

On August 6, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb, which was used in military operations, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This bomb was called "Baby" because it weighed 4 tons. The dropping of the bomb was carefully planned, and it hit exactly where it was planned. Those houses that were not destroyed by the blast wave burned down, as stoves that fell in the houses sparked fires, and the entire city was engulfed in flames.

The bright flash was followed by a heat wave that burned all life within a radius of 4 kilometers, and the subsequent shock wave destroyed most of the buildings.

Those who suffered heatstroke within a radius of 800 meters were burned alive. The blast wave tore off the burnt skin of many. A couple of minutes later a strange black rain began to fall, consisting of steam and ash. Those caught in the black rain suffered incurable burns to their skin.

Those few who were lucky enough to survive suffered from radiation sickness, which at that time was not only unstudied, but also completely unknown. People began to develop fever, vomiting, nausea and attacks of weakness.

On August 9, 1945, the second American bomb, called “Fat Man,” was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. This bomb had approximately the same power as the first, and the consequences of its explosion were just as destructive, although half as many people died.

The two atomic bombs dropped on Japanese cities were the first and only cases in the world of the use of atomic weapons. More than 300,000 people died in the first days after the bombing. About 150 thousand more died from radiation sickness.

After the nuclear bombing of Japanese cities, Stalin received a real shock. It became clear to him that the issue of developing nuclear weapons in Soviet Russia was a matter of security for the entire country. Already on August 20, 1945, a special committee on atomic energy issues began to work, which was urgently created by I. Stalin.

Although research in nuclear physics was carried out by a group of enthusiasts back in Tsarist Russia, V Soviet time she was not given enough attention. In 1938, all research in this area was completely stopped, and many nuclear scientists were repressed as enemies of the people. After nuclear explosions in Japan Soviet authority sharply began to restore the nuclear industry in the country.

There is evidence that the development of nuclear weapons was carried out in Nazi Germany, and it was German scientists who modified the “raw” American atomic bomb, so the US government removed from Germany all nuclear specialists and all documents related to the development of nuclear weapons.

The Soviet intelligence school, which during the war was able to bypass all foreign intelligence services, transferred secret documents related to the development of nuclear weapons to the USSR back in 1943. At the same time, Soviet agents were infiltrated into all major American nuclear research centers.

As a result of all these measures, already in 1946, the technical specifications for the production of two Soviet-made nuclear bombs were ready:

• RDS-1 (with plutonium charge);
• RDS-2 (with two parts of uranium charge).

The abbreviation “RDS” stood for “Russia does it itself,” which was almost completely true.

The news that the USSR was ready to release its nuclear weapons forced the US government to take drastic measures. In 1949, the Trojan plan was developed, according to which 70 largest cities The USSR planned to drop atomic bombs. Only fears of a retaliatory strike prevented this plan from coming true.

These alarming information coming from Soviet intelligence officers, forced scientists to work in emergency mode. Already in August 1949, tests of the first atomic bomb produced in the USSR took place. When the United States learned about these tests, the Trojan plan was postponed indefinitely. The era of confrontation between two superpowers began, known in history as the Cold War.

The most powerful nuclear bomb in the world, known as the “Tsar Bomba,” belongs precisely to the period “ Cold War" USSR scientists created the most powerful bomb in human history. Its power was 60 megatons, although it was planned to create a bomb with a power of 100 kilotons. This bomb was tested in October 1961. The diameter of the fireball during the explosion was 10 kilometers, and the blast wave circled the globe three times. It was this test that forced most countries of the world to sign an agreement to stop nuclear testing not only in the earth’s atmosphere, but even in space.

Although atomic weapons are an excellent means of intimidating aggressive countries, on the other hand they are capable of nipping out any military conflicts in the bud, since an atomic explosion can destroy all parties to the conflict.