Yao trials. Reasons for the creation of a nuclear bomb

Long and hard work of physicists. The beginning of work on nuclear fission in the USSR can be considered the 1920s. Since the 1930s, nuclear physics has become one of the main areas of Russian science. physical science, and in October 1940, for the first time in the USSR, a group of Soviet scientists made a proposal to use atomic energy for weapons purposes, submitting an application "On the use of uranium as an explosive and poisonous substance" to the Red Army Invention Department.

In April 1946, the design bureau KB-11 (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNIIEF) was created at Laboratory No. 2 - one of the most secret enterprises for the development of domestic nuclear weapons, whose chief designer was Julius Khariton. Plant N 550 of the People's Commissariat of Ammunition, which produced artillery shells, was chosen as the base for the deployment of KB-11.

Above secret object was located 75 kilometers from the city of Arzamas (Gorky region, now Nizhny Novgorod region) on the territory of the former Sarov monastery.

KB-11 was tasked with creating an atomic bomb in two versions. In the first of them, the working substance should be plutonium, in the second - uranium-235. In the middle of 1948, work on the uranium version was discontinued due to its relatively low efficiency compared to the cost of nuclear materials.

First domestic atomic bomb had the official designation RDS-1. It was deciphered in different ways: “Russia makes itself”, “The Motherland gives Stalin”, etc. But in the official decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of June 21, 1946, it was encrypted as “Special Jet Engine” (“C”).

The creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was carried out taking into account the available materials according to the scheme of the US plutonium bomb tested in 1945. These materials were provided by Soviet foreign intelligence. An important source of information was Klaus Fuchs, a German physicist, a participant in the work on the US and UK nuclear programs.

Intelligence materials on the American plutonium charge for the atomic bomb made it possible to shorten the time for the creation of the first Soviet charge, although many of the technical solutions of the American prototype were not the best. Even on early stages Soviet experts could offer best solutions both the charge as a whole and its individual nodes. Therefore, the first charge for the atomic bomb tested by the USSR was more primitive and less effective than original version charge, proposed by Soviet scientists in early 1949. But in order to guarantee and short time To show that the USSR also possesses atomic weapons, it was decided to use a charge created according to the American scheme for the first test.

The charge for the RDS-1 atomic bomb was made in the form multilayer construction, in which the transition of the active substance - plutonium to the supercritical state was carried out due to its compression by means of a converging spherical detonation wave in the explosive.

RDS-1 was an aviation atomic bomb weighing 4.7 tons, 1.5 meters in diameter and 3.3 meters long.

It was developed in relation to the Tu-4 aircraft, the bomb bay of which allowed the placement of a "product" with a diameter of no more than 1.5 meters. Plutonium was used as the fissile material in the bomb.

Structurally, the RDS-1 bomb consisted of a nuclear charge; an explosive device and an automatic charge detonation system with safety systems; ballistic case of an air bomb, which housed a nuclear charge and automatic detonation.

For the production of an atomic bomb charge in the city of Chelyabinsk-40 in the South Urals, a plant was built under the conditional number 817 (now the Mayak Production Association). a uranium reactor, and a plant for the production of products from plutonium metal.

The plant's reactor 817 was brought to its design capacity in June 1948, and a year later the enterprise received required amount plutonium to make the first charge for the atomic bomb.

The site for the test site, where it was planned to test the charge, was chosen in the Irtysh steppe, about 170 kilometers west of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. A plain with a diameter of about 20 kilometers was allotted for the test site, surrounded from the south, west and north by low mountains. To the east of this space were small hills.

The construction of the training ground, which was called training ground No. 2 of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR (later the Ministry of Defense of the USSR), was started in 1947, and by July 1949 it was basically completed.

For testing at the test site, an experimental site with a diameter of 10 kilometers, divided into sectors, was prepared. It was equipped with special facilities to ensure testing, observation and registration of physical research.

In the center of the experimental field, a metal lattice tower 37.5 meters high was mounted, designed to install the RDS-1 charge.

At a distance of one kilometer from the center, an underground building was built for equipment that registers light, neutron and gamma fluxes of a nuclear explosion. To study the impact of a nuclear explosion on the experimental field, sections of metro tunnels, fragments of airfield runways were built, samples of aircraft, tanks, artillery rocket launchers, ship superstructures were placed various types. To ensure the operation of the physical sector, 44 structures were built at the test site and a cable network was laid with a length of 560 kilometers.

On August 5, 1949, the government commission for testing the RDS-1 issued an opinion on the complete readiness of the test site and proposed to carry out a detailed development of operations for assembling and undermining the product within 15 days. The test was determined on last numbers August. Igor Kurchatov was appointed scientific supervisor of the test.

In the period from August 10 to 26, 10 rehearsals were held to control the test field and charge detonation equipment, as well as three training exercises with the launch of all equipment and four detonations of full-scale explosives with an aluminum ball from automatic detonation.

On August 21, a plutonium charge and four neutron fuses were delivered to the test site by a special train, one of which was to be used to detonate a military product.

On August 24, Kurchatov arrived at the training ground. By August 26, all preparatory work at the landfill was completed.

Kurchatov gave the order to test the RDS-1 on August 29 at eight o'clock in the morning local time.

At four o'clock in the afternoon on August 28, a plutonium charge and neutron fuses were delivered to the workshop near the tower. Around 12 midnight in the assembly shop on the site in the center of the field began final assembly products - investing in it the main unit, that is, a charge of plutonium and a neutron fuse. At three in the morning on August 29, the installation of the product was completed.

By six o'clock in the morning, the charge was raised to the test tower, its equipment with fuses and connection to the subversive circuit were completed.

Due to the worsening weather, it was decided to postpone the explosion one hour earlier.

At 6.35 the operators turned on the power of the automation system. At 6.48 minutes the field machine was turned on. 20 seconds before the explosion, the main connector (switch) was turned on, connecting the RDS-1 product with the automatic control system.

Exactly at seven o'clock in the morning on August 29, 1949, the whole area was lit up with a blinding light, which marked that the USSR had successfully completed the development and testing of its first charge for an atomic bomb.

20 minutes after the explosion, two tanks equipped with lead shielding were sent to the center of the field to conduct radiation reconnaissance and inspect the center of the field. The reconnaissance found that all structures in the center of the field had been demolished. A funnel gaped in place of the tower, the soil in the center of the field melted, and a continuous crust of slag formed. Civilian buildings and industrial structures were completely or partially destroyed.

The equipment used in the experiment made it possible to carry out optical observations and measurements of the heat flow, shock wave parameters, characteristics of neutron and gamma radiation, determine the level of radioactive contamination of the area in the area of the explosion and along the trace of the explosion cloud, and study the impact of damaging factors of a nuclear explosion on biological objects.

The energy release of the explosion was 22 kilotons (in TNT equivalent).

For the successful development and testing of a charge for an atomic bomb by several closed decrees of the Presidium Supreme Council USSR dated October 29, 1949, she was awarded orders and medals of the USSR large group leading researchers, designers, technologists; many were awarded the title of laureates of the Stalin Prize, and the direct developers of the nuclear charge received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

As a result of the successful test of the RDS-1, the USSR eliminated the American monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons, becoming the second nuclear power in the world.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

A democratic form of government must be established in the USSR.
Vernadsky V.I.

The atomic bomb in the USSR was created on August 29, 1949 (the first successful launch). Academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov supervised the project. The period of development of atomic weapons in the USSR lasted from 1942, and ended with a test on the territory of Kazakhstan. This broke the US monopoly on such weapons, because since 1945 they were the only nuclear power. The article is devoted to the description of the history of the emergence of the Soviet nuclear bomb, as well as a description of the consequences of these events for the USSR.

History of creation

In 1941, representatives of the USSR in New York conveyed to Stalin information that a meeting of physicists was being held in the United States, which was devoted to the development of nuclear weapons. Soviet scientists of the 1930s also worked on the study of the atom, the most famous was the splitting of the atom by scientists from Kharkov, led by L. Landau. However, it did not reach the real use in armament. In addition to the United States, Nazi Germany worked on this. At the end of 1941, the United States began its atomic project. Stalin found out about this at the beginning of 1942 and signed a decree on the creation of a laboratory in the USSR to create an atomic project, Academician I. Kurchatov became its head.

There is an opinion that the work of US scientists was accelerated by the secret developments of German colleagues who ended up in America. In any case, in the summer of 1945, at the Potsdam Conference, the new US President G. Truman informed Stalin about the completion of work on a new weapon - the atomic bomb. Moreover, to demonstrate the work of American scientists, the US government decided to test a new weapon in battle: on August 6 and 9, bombs were dropped on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was the first time that humanity learned about a new weapon. It was this event that forced Stalin to speed up the work of his scientists. I. Kurchatov summoned Stalin and promised to fulfill any requirements of the scientist, if only the process went as quickly as possible. Moreover, a state committee was created under the Council of People's Commissars, which oversaw the Soviet nuclear project. It was headed by L. Beria.

Development has moved to three centers:

Design Bureau of the Kirov Plant, working on the creation of special equipment.
Diffuse plant in the Urals, which was supposed to work on the creation of enriched uranium.
Chemical and metallurgical centers where plutonium was studied. It was this element that was used in the first Soviet-style nuclear bomb.

In 1946, the first Soviet unified nuclear center was established. It was a secret object Arzamas-16, located in the city of Sarov (Nizhny Novgorod region). In 1947, the first nuclear reactor was created at an enterprise near Chelyabinsk. In 1948, a secret training ground was created on the territory of Kazakhstan, near the city of Semipalatinsk-21. It was here that on August 29, 1949, the first explosion of the Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was organized. This event was held in top secret, however, American Pacific aviation was able to record a sharp increase in radiation levels, which was evidence of testing a new weapon. Already in September 1949, G. Truman announced the presence of an atomic bomb in the USSR. Officially, the USSR admitted to having these weapons only in 1950.

There are several main consequences successful development Soviet atomic weapons scientists:

The loss of the US status of a single state with nuclear weapons. This not only equalized the USSR with the United States in terms of military power, but also forced the latter to think through each of their military steps, since now it was necessary to fear for the response of the USSR leadership.
The presence of atomic weapons in the USSR secured its status as a superpower.
After the United States and the USSR were equalized in the presence of atomic weapons, the race for their number began. States spent huge finances to outperform the competitor. Moreover, attempts began to create even more powerful weapons.
These events served as the start of the nuclear race. Many countries have begun to invest resources to add to the list of nuclear states and ensure their own security.

At the Alamogordo Proving Ground in New Mexico. The atomic bomb test operation was codenamed Trinity. Planning for the operation began as early as the spring of 1944. The complex theory of nuclear reaction and doubts about the correctness of the design of the atomic bomb required verification before the first combat use. At the same time, the option of a bomb failure, an explosion without starting a chain reaction, or an explosion of low power was considered at first. To save at least some of the expensive plutonium and eliminate the threat of contamination of the area with this extremely toxic substance, the Americans ordered a large, durable steel container that could withstand the explosion of a conventional explosive.

A local resident at one of the abandoned mines where nuclear tests were carried out, Semipalatinsk, 1991
© ITAR-TASS/V.Pavlunin
international day of action against nuclear testing: consequences of explosions

For the test, a sparsely populated area of the United States was selected in advance, and one of the conditions was the absence of Indians in it. This was not due to racism or secrecy, but to the complex relationship between the leadership of the "Manhattan Project" ("Manhattan Project", which developed nuclear weapons) with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As a result, at the end of 1944, the Alamogordo area in the state of New Mexico, which was administered by an air base, was chosen, although the airfield itself was located far from it.

The nuclear bomb was mounted on a 30-meter steel tower. This was done taking into account the intended use of a combat nuclear charge in aerial bombs. Also undermining in the air maximized the impact of the explosion on the target. The bomb itself was given the code name "Gadget", now widely used to refer to electronic devices. Fissile materials, two plutonium hemispheres were installed in the "Gadget" at the last moment.

How the explosion happened

The explosion, which marked the beginning of the nuclear era, thundered at 5:30 am local time on July 16, 1945. At that time, no one could unequivocally predict what would happen in a nuclear explosion, and the night before, one of the physicists participating in the Manhattan Project, Enrico Fermi, even argued about whether a nuclear bomb would set fire to the Earth's atmosphere, triggering a man-made Apocalypse. Another physicist, Robert Oppenheimer, on the contrary, pessimistically estimated the force of the future explosion at only 300 tons of TNT. Estimates varied from "dummy" to 18 thousand tons. However, without the most frightening consequences in the form of a set fire to the atmosphere, it happened. All those who participated in the test noted the bright flash of the bomb explosion, which flooded everything around with a blinding light. The blast wave at a distance from the point of explosion, on the contrary, somewhat disappointed the military. In fact, the force of the explosion was monstrous and the giant 150-ton Jumbo container was easily overturned by it. Even far from the landfill, the inhabitants were agitated by the terrifying force of the explosion.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
© AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi
Media: thousands of people ask Obama to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki

A peculiar method of measuring the strength of an explosion is associated with a weak blast wave. Fermi took pieces of paper and held them in his hand at a certain height, which he measured in advance. As the shock wave approached, he opened his fist and let the shock wave sweep the scraps of paper from his palm. After measuring the distance they flew off, the physicist hastily estimated the strength of the explosion on a slide rule. It is usually claimed that Fermi's calculation exactly matched the data obtained later on the basis of the readings of complex instruments. However, the assessment coincided only against the background of a spread in preliminary assumptions from 300 tons to 18 thousand tons. The force of the explosion calculated from the readings of the device in the Trinity test was about 20 thousand tons. at the Potsdam Conference, and in two attacks on Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945.

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The US originally planned to drop 9 atomic bombs, 3 in support of each landing operation on the Japanese islands, scheduled for the end of September 1945. The US military planned to detonate bombs over rice fields or the sea. And in this case, the psychological effect would be achieved. But the government was adamant: bombs should be used against densely populated cities.

The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. On August 6, two B-29 bombers appeared over the city. The alarm signal was given, but, seeing that there were few aircraft, everyone thought that this was not a major raid, but reconnaissance. When the bombers reached the city center, one of them dropped a small parachute, after which the planes flew away. Immediately after that, at 8:15 a.m., there was a deafening explosion.

Among the smoke, dust and debris, wooden houses flared up one after another, until the end of the day the city was engulfed in flames. And when, finally, the flame subsided, the whole city was one ruin.

The bomb destroyed 60 percent of the city to the ground. Of the 306,545 residents of Hiroshima, 176,987 were affected by the explosion. 92,133 people were killed or missing, 9,428 were seriously injured and 27,997 were slightly injured. This information was published in February 1946 by the headquarters of the American occupation army in Japan. Various buildings within a radius of two kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion were completely destroyed.
People died or received severe burns within 8.6 kilometers, trees and grass were charred at a distance of up to 4 kilometers.

On August 8, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It also caused great damage and caused numerous casualties. The explosion over Nagasaki affected an area of approximately 110 square kilometers, of which 22 were water surface and 84 were only partially inhabited. According to a Nagasaki Prefecture report, "people and animals died almost instantly" up to 1 km from the epicenter. Almost all houses within a radius of 2 km were destroyed. The death toll by the end of 1945 ranged from 60 to 80 thousand people.

The first atomic bomb in the USSR

In the USSR, the first test of an atomic bomb - the RDS-1 product - was carried out on August 29, 1949 at the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan. RDS-1 was a "drop-shaped" airborne atomic bomb, weighing 4.6 tons, 1.5 m in diameter and 3.7 m long. Plutonium was used as a fissile material. The bomb was detonated at 07:00 local time (4:00 Moscow time) on a mounted metal lattice tower 37.5 m high, located in the center of the experimental field with a diameter of about 20 km. The power of the explosion was 20 kilotons of TNT.

RDS-1 product (the decoding was indicated in the documents " jet engine"C") was created at Design Bureau No. 11 (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, RFNC-VNIIEF, Sarov), which was organized to create an atomic bomb in April 1946. The work on creating the bomb was led by Igor Kurchatov (scientific supervisor of work on the atomic problem since 1943; organizer of the bomb test) and Yuli Khariton ( chief designer KB-11 in 1946-1959).

The first test of the Soviet atomic bomb broke the US nuclear monopoly. Soviet Union became the second nuclear power in the world.
A report on the testing of nuclear weapons in the USSR was published by TASS on September 25, 1949. And on October 29, a closed decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR "On rewarding and bonuses for outstanding scientific discoveries and technical achievements in the use of atomic energy". For the development and testing of the first Soviet atomic bomb, six employees of KB-11 were awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor: Pavel Zernov (design bureau director), Yuli Khariton, Kirill Shchelkin, Yakov Zeldovich, Vladimir Alferov, Georgy Flerov. Deputy chief designer Nikolai Dukhov received second golden star Hero of Socialist Labor. 29 employees of the bureau were awarded the Order of Lenin, 15 - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, 28 became laureates of the Stalin Prize.

The situation with nuclear weapons today

A total of 2,062 nuclear weapons tests have been conducted in the world, which eight states have. The US accounts for 1032 explosions (1945-1992). The United States of America is the only country to have used this weapon. The USSR conducted 715 tests (1949-1990). The last explosion took place on October 24, 1990 at the Novaya Zemlya test site. In addition to the USA and the USSR, nuclear weapons were created and tested in Great Britain - 45 (1952-1991), France - 210 (1960-1996), China - 45 (1964-1996), India - 6 (1974, 1998), Pakistan - 6 (1998) and North Korea - 3 (2006, 2009, 2013).

In 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) entered into force. Currently, 188 countries of the world are its participants. The document was not signed by India (in 1998 it introduced a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing and agreed to put its nuclear facilities under the control of the IAEA) and Pakistan (in 1998 it introduced a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing). North Korea, having signed the treaty in 1985, withdrew from it in 2003.

In 1996, the universal cessation of nuclear testing was enshrined in the framework of the international Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Thereafter nuclear explosions carried out only by three countries - India, Pakistan and the DPRK.

After the end of World War II, the country anti-Hitler coalition rapidly tried to get ahead of each other in the development of a more powerful nuclear bomb.

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

When and how did nuclear weapons appear

1896 can be considered the year of birth of the atomic bomb. It was then that French chemist A. Becquerel discovered that uranium is radioactive. Chain reaction uranium forms a powerful energy that 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.

Late 19th - early 20th century turning point in the history of the invention of nuclear weapons. It was in this time period that scientists from various countries of the world were able to discover the following laws, rays and elements:

Alpha, gamma and beta rays;
Many isotopes of chemical elements with radioactive properties have been discovered;
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, for the first time, they were able to split the atomic nucleus of uranium 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 French physicist Frederic Joliot-Curie.

As a result of further research and development in this area, a nuclear bomb was born. The power and range 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 is capable of destroying an entire state.

How an atomic bomb works

An atomic bomb consists of many elements, the main of which are:

Atomic Bomb Corps;
Automation system that controls the explosion process;
Nuclear charge or warhead.

The automation system is located in the body of an atomic bomb, along with a nuclear charge. The design of the hull must be sufficiently reliable to protect the warhead from various external factors and impacts. For example, various mechanical, thermal or similar influences, which can lead to an unplanned explosion of great power, capable of destroying everything around.

The task of automation includes complete control over the explosion at the right time, so the system consists of the following elements:

Device responsible for emergency detonation;
Power supply of the automation system;
Undermining sensor system;
cocking device;
Safety device.

When the first tests were carried out, nuclear bombs were delivered by planes that had time to leave the affected area. Modern atomic bombs are so powerful that they can only be delivered by cruise, ballistic, or even anti-aircraft missiles.

Atomic bombs use a variety of detonation systems. The simplest of these is a simple 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.

Interestingly, most often the power of all nuclear bombs is measured precisely in TNT equivalent, since there is no scale for measuring the power of an explosion for atomic weapons.

Algorithms for the operation of nuclear bombs

Any atomic bomb operates on the principle of use nuclear energy released during a nuclear reaction. This procedure is based on either the fission of heavy nuclei or the synthesis of lungs. Since this reaction releases great amount energy, and 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.

There are two main points in the process that starts with the explosion of an atomic bomb:

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 shocks bring direct destruction only at a distance of several hundred meters (although, given the force of the explosion of the bomb itself, these shocks no longer affect anything).

Damage factors in a nuclear explosion

The explosion of a nuclear bomb brings not only terrible instantaneous destruction. The consequences of this explosion will be felt not only by people who fell into the affected area, but also by their children, who were born after the atomic explosion. Types of destruction by atomic weapons are divided into the following groups:

Light radiation that occurs directly during the explosion;
The shock wave propagated by a bomb immediately after the explosion;
Electromagnetic pulse;
penetrating radiation;
A radioactive contamination that can last for decades.

Although at first glance, a flash of light poses the least threat, in fact, it is formed as a result of the release of a huge amount of thermal and light energy. Its power and strength far exceeds the power of the rays of the sun, so the defeat of light and heat can be fatal at a distance of several kilometers.

The radiation that is released during the explosion is also very dangerous. Although it does not last long, it manages to infect everything around, since its penetrating ability is incredibly high.

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

Penetrating radiation provokes the development of radiation sickness, and an electromagnetic pulse is dangerous only for 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 test

The first country to develop and test nuclear weapons was the United States of America. It was the US government that allocated huge cash subsidies for the development of promising new weapons. By the end of 1941, many prominent 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 test of an atomic bomb equipped with an explosive device was carried out in the desert in the state of New Mexico. A bomb called "Gadget" was detonated on July 16, 1945. The test result was positive, although the military demanded to test a nuclear bomb in real combat conditions.

Seeing that before the victory on Hitler's coalition there was only one step left, and more such an opportunity may not be presented, the Pentagon decided to launch a nuclear strike on the last ally of Nazi 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 territory;
To bring the uncompromising Japanese to their knees in one blow, forcing them to agree to conditions favorable to the United States;
Show the USSR (as a possible rival in the future) that the US Army has a unique weapon that can wipe 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 was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which was used in military operations. This bomb was called "Baby", as its weight was 4 tons. The bomb drop was carefully planned, and it hit exactly where it was planned. Those houses that were not destroyed by the blast burned down, as the stoves that fell in the houses provoked fires, and the whole city was engulfed in flames.

After a bright flash, a heat wave followed, which burned all life within a radius of 4 kilometers, and the shock wave that followed it destroyed most buildings.

Those who were hit by 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 fell, which consisted of steam and ash. Those who fell under the black rain, the skin received incurable burns.

Those few who were lucky enough to survive fell ill with radiation sickness, which at that time was not only not studied, but also completely unknown. People began to develop fever, vomiting, nausea and bouts of weakness.

On August 9, 1945, the second american bomb, which was called "Fat Man". This bomb had about the same power as the first, and the consequences of its explosion were just as devastating, although people died half as much.

Two atomic bombs dropped on Japanese cities turned out to be the first and only case 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 security issue for the entire country. Already on August 20, 1945, a special committee on atomic energy 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, in Soviet times, it was not given due attention. In 1938, all research in this area was completely stopped, and many nuclear scientists were repressed as enemies of the people. After the nuclear explosions in Japan, the Soviet government abruptly 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 finalized the “raw” American atomic bomb, so the US government removed all nuclear specialists and all documents related to the development of nuclear weapons from Germany.

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

As a result of all these measures, already in 1946 it was ready technical task for the manufacture of two Soviet-made nuclear bombs:

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

The abbreviation "RDS" was deciphered as "Russia does itself", which almost completely corresponded to reality.

The news that the USSR was ready to release its nuclear weapons forced the US government to take drastic measures. In 1949, the Troyan plan was developed, according to which it was planned to drop atomic bombs on 70 largest cities in the USSR. Only the fear of a retaliatory strike prevented this plan from being realized.

This alarming information comes from Soviet intelligence officers, forced scientists to work in emergency mode. Already in August 1949, the first atomic bomb produced in the USSR was tested. When the US found out about these tests, the Trojan plan was put on hold for indefinite time. The era of confrontation between the two superpowers, known in history as the Cold War, began.

The most powerful nuclear bomb in the world, known as the "Tsar bomb" belongs precisely to the period " cold war". Soviet scientists have created the most powerful bomb in the history of mankind. Its capacity was 60 megatons, although it was planned to create a bomb with a capacity 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 flew around Earth three times. It was this test that forced most countries of the world to sign an agreement to end nuclear tests 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 extinguishing any military conflicts in the bud, since all parties to the conflict can be destroyed in an atomic explosion.

Now the nuclear potential of some countries is simply amazing. In this area, the laurels of superiority belong to the United States. This power has more than 5,000 nuclear arsenals. The nuclear age began more than 70 years ago, after the first atomic bomb test took place in New Mexico at the Alamogordo test site. This event marked the beginning of the era of atomic weapons.
Since then, 2062 more nuclear bombs have been tested in the world. Of these, 1032 tests were conducted by the USA (1945-1992), 715 by the USSR (1949-1990), 210 by France (1960-1996), 45 each by the UK (1952-1991) and China (1964-1996), 6 each - India (1974-1998) and Pakistan (1998), and 3 - DPRK (2006, 2009, 2013).

Reasons for the creation of a nuclear bomb

The first steps towards the creation of nuclear weapons were taken in 1939. The main reason for this was the activity Nazi Germany who were preparing for war. Several people considered the idea of creating weapons of mass destruction. This fact led to the anxiety of the opponents of the Hitler regime and served as the reason for an appeal to US President Franklin Roosevelt.

Project history

In 1939, Roosevelt was approached by several scientists. They were Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner. In their letter, they expressed concern about the development in Germany of a powerful new kind of bomb. Scientists were afraid that Germany would create a bomb earlier, which could bring destruction on a huge scale. The message also said that thanks to research in the field of atomic physics, it became possible to use the effect of the decay of an atom to create atomic weapons.
The President of the United States treated the message with due attention, and by his order a uranium committee was created. On October 21, 1939, at a meeting, it was decided to use uranium and plutonium as raw materials for the bomb. The project developed very slowly and at first was only exploratory in nature. This continued almost until 1941.
Scientists did not like this slow progress, and on March 7, 1940, another letter was sent on behalf of Albert Einstein to Franklin Roosevelt. There is evidence that Germany is showing a strong interest in the creation of new powerful weapons. Thanks to this, the process of creating a bomb by the Americans accelerated, because in this case there was already a more serious issue - this is a matter of survival. Who knows what could have happened if the German scientists, during the Second World War, had created the bomb first.
The nuclear program was approved by the President of the United States on October 9, 1941 and was called the Manhattan Project. The project was carried out by the United States in cooperation with Canada and the UK.
The work was carried out in complete secrecy. In this regard, he was given such a name. Initially, they wanted to call it “Development of Substitute Materials”, which literally translates as follows - “Development alternative materials". It was clear that such a name could attract unwanted interest from the outside, and therefore he received the optimal name. For the construction of the complex for the implementation of the program, the Manhattan Engineering District was created, from where the name of the project comes from.
There is another version of the origin of the name. It is believed that it came from New York Manhattan, where Columbia University is located. On the early stage most of the research was done there.
Work on the project took place with the participation of more than 125 thousand people. A huge amount of material, industrial and financial resources. In total, $ 2 billion was spent on the creation and testing of the bomb. The best minds of the country worked on the creation of weapons.
Practical work on the creation of the first nuclear bomb started in 1943. In Los Alamos (New Mexico), Hartford (Washington) and Oak Ridge (Tennessee), research institutes in the field of nuclear physics, chemistry, and biology were established.
The first three atomic bombs were created in mid-1945. They differed in the type of action (cannon, gun and implosive type) and in the type of substance (uranium and plutonium).

Preparing for the bomb test

To conduct the first test of the atomic bomb, the place was selected in advance. For this, a sparsely populated region of the country was chosen. An important condition was the absence of Indians in the area. The reasons for this were the difficult relationship between the leadership of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the leadership of the Manhattan Project. As a result, at the end of 1944, the Alamogordo area, which is located in the state of New Mexico, was chosen.
Planning for the operation began in 1944. She was given the code name "Trinity" (Trinity). In preparation for the test, the option of the bomb not working was considered. In this case, a steel container was ordered, which is able to withstand the explosion of a conventional bomb. This was done so that, in the event of a negative result, at least part of the plutonium was preserved, and also to prevent contamination by it. environment.
The bomb was codenamed "Gadget". It was mounted on a steel tower 30 meters high. Two plutonium hemispheres were installed in the bomb at the last moment.

The first atomic bomb explosion in human history

The explosion was planned to take place on July 16, 1945 at 4:00 am local time. But it had to be moved through the weather. The rain stopped and at 5:30 an explosion occurred.
As a result of the explosion, the steel tower evaporated, and in its place a crater with a diameter of about 76 meters was formed. The light from the explosion could be seen at a distance of about 290 kilometers. The sound spread over a distance of about 160 kilometers. In this regard, misinformation about the explosion of ammunition had to be spread. The mushroom cloud rose to a height of 12 kilometers in five minutes. It consisted of radioactive substances, iron vapor and several tons of dust. After the operation, environmental contamination with radiation was observed at a distance of 160 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. A five-meter iron pipe with a diameter of 10 centimeters, which was concreted and reinforced with stretch marks, also evaporated at a distance of 150 meters.
The results of the Manhattan Project could be considered successful. The main participants were adequately rewarded. Scientists from Canada, Great Britain and the USA, emigrants from Germany and Denmark took part in it. It was this project that marked the beginning of the atomic era.
Today, many powers have an impressive atomic arsenal, but, fortunately, history remembers only two cases of the use of nuclear bombs against humanity - the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945.

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