1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,920 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Lauren 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,799 Speaker 1: Vogel bomb here. On October thirtieth of nineteen sixty one, 3 00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:17,600 Speaker 1: especially equipped Soviet long range bomber flew toward a remote 4 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:20,959 Speaker 1: chain of islands in the Arctic Ocean called Nova Zemia. 5 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:24,440 Speaker 1: It was a site that the Soviet Union often used 6 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:28,360 Speaker 1: for nuclear tests. The bomber was accompanied by a smaller 7 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 1: plane equipped with the movie camera and instruments for monitoring 8 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:37,040 Speaker 1: air samples and nuclear fallout. But this wasn't a routine 9 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:41,159 Speaker 1: nuclear test. Attached to the underside of the plane was 10 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:44,600 Speaker 1: a thermonuclear bomb that was so big it wouldn't fit 11 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:49,839 Speaker 1: inside the plane's interior bomb bay. This cylindrical device was 12 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,080 Speaker 1: roughly the size of a bus twenty six feet long 13 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 1: that's eight meters and nearly seven feet in diameter a 14 00:00:56,440 --> 00:01:00,640 Speaker 1: little over two meters. It weighed nearly sixty thousand pounds 15 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:05,759 Speaker 1: that's twenty seven metric tons. The nuclear bomb had the 16 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:09,440 Speaker 1: prosaic name of Item six ZHO two, but it's gone 17 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: down in history as the Tsar bomba, the Russian term 18 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:18,880 Speaker 1: for the emperor of nuclear bombs. That name was no exaggeration. 19 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:23,120 Speaker 1: Zar bombas yield is estimated to have been roughly fifty 20 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:26,600 Speaker 1: seven mega tons, which is about one thousand, five hundred 21 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,800 Speaker 1: times the combined power of the two atomic bombs that 22 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 1: the US used to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World 23 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:37,600 Speaker 1: War II. It's about ten times more powerful than all 24 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:41,240 Speaker 1: of the conventional explosions put off during World War II. 25 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:46,080 Speaker 1: On that day in October of nineteen sixty one, it 26 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:48,840 Speaker 1: was released on a parachute in order to slow its 27 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 1: descent and give the bomber and observer planes time to escape. 28 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:57,480 Speaker 1: When it finally detonated about thirteen thousand feet or four 29 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: kilometers above the ground. US was so powerful that it 30 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:06,200 Speaker 1: destroyed everything within a nearly twenty two mile radius that's 31 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 1: thirty five kilometers, and generated a mushroom cloud that towered 32 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:15,400 Speaker 1: nearly two hundred thousand feet or sixty kilometers that's seven 33 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:20,000 Speaker 1: times taller than Mount Everest. Its fireball didn't actually touch 34 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:23,080 Speaker 1: the ground, but it expanded to a radius of about 35 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:25,799 Speaker 1: six miles in the air, which is about nine and 36 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:29,200 Speaker 1: a half kilometers, which would be enough to engulf pretty 37 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:33,080 Speaker 1: much any major city and out into the surrounding metro area. 38 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:36,960 Speaker 1: In Soviet towns, some one hundred miles or one hundred 39 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:41,080 Speaker 1: fifty kilometers from ground zero. Wooden houses were destroyed, and 40 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: even brick and stone structures were damaged. Quirks of atmospheric 41 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:49,920 Speaker 1: pressure let the blast shatter windows over ten times that distance, 42 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:54,440 Speaker 1: thousands of miles away in Finland and Norway. The blast 43 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:57,880 Speaker 1: was so powerful that its shockwave caused the release plane 44 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:01,480 Speaker 1: to immediately drop some three thousand feet in altitude about 45 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:05,040 Speaker 1: a kilometer, though the pilot regained control and got the 46 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 1: plane back to its base safely. A Soviet cameraman who 47 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:13,639 Speaker 1: recorded the event was later in the nineteen nineties interviewed 48 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:18,480 Speaker 1: for the Cold War International History Project Bulletin. The writers 49 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:22,040 Speaker 1: of that piece reported that he saw quote a powerful 50 00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:25,840 Speaker 1: flash over the horizon, and after a long period of time, 51 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:30,240 Speaker 1: he heard a remote, indistinct and heavy blow, as if 52 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: the earth had been killed. Sarbamba's test was symbolic of 53 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:40,120 Speaker 1: the escalating tensions between the USSR and the United States 54 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 1: at the height of the Cold War. After a June 55 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:47,120 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one summit in Vienna between Soviet Premier and 56 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: Nikita Khruschev and US President John F. Kennedy went badly. 57 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 1: Khruztchev apparently decided to take out his frustrations by showing 58 00:03:55,880 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 1: off their military prowess, including ending the informal moreitarium on 59 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:04,600 Speaker 1: nuclear testing that both countries had maintained since the late 60 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: nineteen fifties. The resumption of testing gave Soviet weapons researchers 61 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: a chance to try out an idea they had for 62 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 1: building a giant hydrogen bomb, a one that was far 63 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:19,279 Speaker 1: bigger than the most powerful weapons in the American arsenal 64 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:23,640 Speaker 1: atomic bombs included in the frightening logic of all out 65 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:27,560 Speaker 1: nuclear war. Having a high yield h bomb did make 66 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:32,760 Speaker 1: some sense theoretically at the time. Missiles capable of striking 67 00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:35,839 Speaker 1: at distant countries were still in their infancy, and the 68 00:04:35,839 --> 00:04:40,839 Speaker 1: Soviet Union didn't have many strategic bombers. The US, in contrast, 69 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:43,880 Speaker 1: had a variety of aircraft that could strike from bases 70 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: dangerously close to Soviet territory. For the article this episode 71 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: is based on, hastuff Work spoke via email with Nikolaisakov, 72 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:55,479 Speaker 1: a senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and 73 00:04:55,560 --> 00:05:01,000 Speaker 1: Non Proliferation. He explained, if you can only deliver one, 74 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:07,200 Speaker 1: two or three bombs, they better be very powerful. But 75 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 1: the Soviet researchers pushed that idea to an extreme. They 76 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:15,000 Speaker 1: envisioned a hundred megaton weapon with a high level of radiation, 77 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,120 Speaker 1: but settled for testing one with only a little more 78 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:21,480 Speaker 1: than half of that explosive power. After their political leadership 79 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:26,520 Speaker 1: expressed worries about radioactive fallout from a larger blast. The 80 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:29,880 Speaker 1: decision to time the explosion a good bit above Earth's 81 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:34,320 Speaker 1: surface also worked in everyone's favor. The bomb's own shockwave 82 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:39,280 Speaker 1: helped repel its fireball further into the sky, Sakov said. 83 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:43,680 Speaker 1: As a result, fallout was very limited, much more limited 84 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: than one could expect. The shockwave was really strong, however, 85 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:55,440 Speaker 1: it circumnavigated Earth three times. Even so, Japanese authorities found 86 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:58,080 Speaker 1: the highest level of radiation in rain water that they 87 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 1: had ever detected, as well as an invisible cloud of 88 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:05,160 Speaker 1: radioactive ash that drifted eastward across the Pacific and then 89 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:10,040 Speaker 1: crossed Canada and the Great Lakes region. American scientists reassured 90 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:12,760 Speaker 1: the public that most of the radioactive fallout from Zar 91 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 1: Bomba would stay high in the stratosphere and gradually lose 92 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:20,159 Speaker 1: its radioactivity by the time it fell to Earth. The 93 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:23,920 Speaker 1: Soviets informed the US beforehand of their intention to test 94 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,919 Speaker 1: day fifty megaton nuclear bomb. In a speech just a 95 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:31,760 Speaker 1: week before the blast, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Roswell 96 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:35,560 Speaker 1: Gilpatrick suggested that the bomb wasn't intended to intimidate the 97 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:38,360 Speaker 1: United States, but to send a message to the Soviet 98 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:43,599 Speaker 1: Union's restless ally China. He said, perhaps this is also 99 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:47,120 Speaker 1: the Soviet Union's answer to the discordant voice from its 100 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:52,480 Speaker 1: populous neighbor to the south. Zar BOMBA made headlines in 101 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:56,200 Speaker 1: the US, but government officials didn't seem impressed by the 102 00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:02,000 Speaker 1: nightmarish display of nuclear destruction. The US had concentric rings 103 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:06,080 Speaker 1: of defenses, from early warning radar to fighter aircraft and 104 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:09,240 Speaker 1: surface to air missiles that would have made it difficult 105 00:07:09,279 --> 00:07:12,040 Speaker 1: for a Soviet bomber to succeed in a first strike, 106 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:16,520 Speaker 1: and a device as massive as the Zar BOMBA was 107 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:19,720 Speaker 1: dangerous to the aircraft that dropped it, so much so 108 00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:22,320 Speaker 1: that the bomber crew had only been given a fifty 109 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:27,840 Speaker 1: to fifty chance of survival. Theoretically, there is no limit 110 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:32,840 Speaker 1: on how big hydrogen bombs can be. Hastuffworks also spoke 111 00:07:32,920 --> 00:07:35,880 Speaker 1: via a mail with Robert Standish Norris, a senior fellow 112 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:39,880 Speaker 1: for Nuclear Policy at the Federation of American Scientists. He 113 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,520 Speaker 1: explained that the US a quote, looked into the big 114 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:48,520 Speaker 1: bomb option and decided no, if ever used, zar BOMBA 115 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:52,760 Speaker 1: would clearly kill a lot more people. Accuracy became an option, 116 00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:55,320 Speaker 1: and if you improve it by half, you can cut 117 00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:58,280 Speaker 1: the yield by a factor of eight. This is what 118 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:02,520 Speaker 1: we did, and the Soviets fall in that way. Tsar 119 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: BOMBA ended up being a macab curiosity of the nuclear age. 120 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:12,040 Speaker 1: Hastiff Works also spoke by email Pavel Podvig, now a 121 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:15,480 Speaker 1: senior researcher in the Weapons of Mass Destruction program at 122 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:20,960 Speaker 1: the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. He said, everybody 123 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,200 Speaker 1: understood that it is too big to be a practical weapon. 124 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: From the point of view of destructive power. It's more 125 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:31,160 Speaker 1: efficient to use several smaller weapons than one large one. 126 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:37,440 Speaker 1: No additional devices of this kind were built. Instead, the 127 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:40,880 Speaker 1: Soviet Union went in a different direction. A few years 128 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:44,560 Speaker 1: after the SARBOMBA test, the Soviet missile designers achieved a 129 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:48,560 Speaker 1: major breakthrough with liquid fuel, opening the way to produce 130 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:51,560 Speaker 1: strategic missiles that could be kept ready for launch for 131 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:56,200 Speaker 1: extended periods and hidden in protected silos. No aircraft needed. 132 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:00,000 Speaker 1: By the nineteen seventies, only five percent of the Soviet 133 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:02,760 Speaker 1: nuclear arsenal was in the form of bombs that could 134 00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:08,160 Speaker 1: be dropped by aircraft, Sakov said. About nineteen sixty four 135 00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:11,920 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty five, the Soviet Union decisively turned toward an 136 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:16,680 Speaker 1: emphasis on ICBMs, or intercontinental ballistic missiles, which can carry 137 00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:19,520 Speaker 1: several warheads, each of which will strike a different target, 138 00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:23,640 Speaker 1: which typically amounted to about two thirds of its strategic 139 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:26,679 Speaker 1: force until about the mid nineteen nineties, when it declined 140 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:32,839 Speaker 1: to roughly fifty percent. After Zarbamba's detonation, the head of 141 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:37,400 Speaker 1: the Soviet nuclear weapons program, physicist Andrey Sakrov, went on 142 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:41,240 Speaker 1: a personal campaign against the use and even testing of 143 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 1: such weapons. He was exiled by his government, and in 144 00:09:45,679 --> 00:09:49,080 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his 145 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:55,040 Speaker 1: work in global human rights. Today, researchers still operate organizations 146 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:58,880 Speaker 1: like the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to help educate 147 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:03,200 Speaker 1: and equip everyone one, from the public to policymakers about 148 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:07,360 Speaker 1: how to understand the existential threat that nuclear weapons represent. 149 00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 1: To learn more, check out the Bulletin dot org. They're 150 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:20,520 Speaker 1: not a sponsor, just a good organization. Today's episode is 151 00:10:20,559 --> 00:10:24,199 Speaker 1: based on the article zarbomba the most powerful nuclear weapon 152 00:10:24,240 --> 00:10:27,640 Speaker 1: ever built on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Patrick J. Higer. 153 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:30,880 Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with 154 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:34,280 Speaker 1: HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four 155 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:37,440 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 156 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:40,840 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.