
Rosatom releases previously classified documentary video of Tsar Bomba nuke test - vinnyglennon
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2020/08/rosatom-releases-previously-classified-documentary-video-50-mt-novaya-zemlya-test
======
supernova87a
Watching this film, if you turn off the narrator, you see the same guys as our
guys, doing their jobs, making the same preparations (down to the anti-flash
white paint on the aircraft), executing the same commands -- all just normal
people who were caught up in a terrible arms race. Some of them out of duty,
others out of ambition.

Makes you think about how, in the age where technological achievement can so
quickly outpace the control of individuals, yet also relies on those same
individuals to make it happen -- how important it will be for us to somehow
find a way for the people at the top to not lead everyone else down a wrong
path.

It's no profoundly new sentiment, but in some ways we need to overcome our
caveman instincts when we're stocked with nuclear weapons.

~~~
ISL
When walking through the Pima Air and Space Museum, where NATO and Soviet-bloc
aircraft of matching generations often sit almost side-by-side, the similarity
of the aircraft was striking.

While some of the similarity can be explained by espionage, much of it comes
from the confrontation between ingenuity and Nature. These instruments of war,
built by professionals who deeply respected their adversaries, memorialize the
extent to which each side was desperate to prevent the other from gaining an
operational edge. It is the science of life and death, confronting not entropy
(as we do in the case of Covid-19) but other humans.

As a scientist who builds instrumentation, looking particularly into the
landing-gear wells and bomb-bays, I felt great connection with those who built
the instruments. People, just like me, built these things because they felt
that they had to in order to defend their homes. I have promised myself never
to build weapons unless the United States is attacked -- devoting instead a
portion of my time to non-proliferation work -- but it is easy to see how
humanity reaches such a point.

I see in today's era of closing borders and increasing nationalism the
prospect of conflict not seen since the 1940s. Tectonic stresses have built
for decades; we must find ways to relax them gently in a way that is
beneficial to everyone, so that humanity might prosper and thrive for
generations to come.

~~~
kapuasuite
> I have promised myself never to build weapons unless the United States is
> attacked

The issue with this is that by the time we are under attack it’s already too
late to develop weapons. Most of the naval and air assets we used to fight
World War II (the modern ur-example of a just conflict) were on the drawing
board and planned, if not already in production, prior to Pearl Harbor. The
problem is only magnified today where it takes years, not months, to build a
ship, for example. Pledging to not work on weapons and other military projects
absent a conflict is, in essence, a pledge never to work on weapons or
military projects ever.

~~~
ISL
Agreed. My general position is that, creatively applied, the weapons we have
are good enough. This is not in a relative sense, but an absolute one.

I do not wish to spend my limited time on the planet improving the fundamental
rate at which we can kill one another. We, as a species, are already excellent
at that task.

I am a physicist. If we are involved in a protracted conflict, there will be
plenty of opportunities akin to MIT's Rad Lab or the Manhattan Project to
which I might contribute. R.V. Jones is a personal hero. Until then, I would
rather contribute to preserving life or chasing down nature's secrets (my day
job through 9/16, when I cast off on a new odyssey).

------
saagarjha
Oh, wow, this is great. Seeing all this in detail is really interesting. It's
even better after seeing the static, low-quality pictures on Wikipedia and
then watching this and seeing that they are in fact part of a high-quality,
_video_ capture of the bomb. I can't wonder how many similar "secret" projects
have such good documentation and videos of them that haven't seen the light of
day yet…

Edit: no, really, go check out the Wikipedia image of the bomb
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba))
and then watch the video. They have the recording they pulled that exact
picture on the top of the page from, except the quality is significantly
better in every aspect. (If you're impatient:
[https://youtu.be/nbC7BxXtOlo?t=1780](https://youtu.be/nbC7BxXtOlo?t=1780))

~~~
jbay808
I'm astonished that they would release this video. Even 60 years onward, this
test is still beyond the capabilities of many nations and so it's surprising
to me that this wouldn't remain classified. It goes into quite extensive
detail on the logistics and planning and even shows footage of the bomb with
panels removed.

Edit on downvotes - is my surprise at its declassification misplaced? Does
every teenager these days know how to plan and carry out a 50 megaton nuclear
test by reading Wikipedia?

~~~
pvg
_Does every teenager these days know how to plan and carry out a 50 megaton
nuclear test by reading Wikipedia?_

Not quite but closer than you might have thought, see

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nth_Country_Experiment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nth_Country_Experiment)

~~~
tyingq
The important bit being:

 _" though in such a case the limiting factor in developing such a weapon is
not usually design difficulty but rather the procurement of material (enriched
uranium)"_

~~~
solstice
This paragraph refers to the simpler-to-design gun type (eg Fat Man).
According to WP the three PhD guys designed a much more complicated implosion-
type bomb within only 3 years with public information and only basic tools.

~~~
idi123
Fat Man is the “much more complicated” design and the guys picked it because
it is more challenging.

Results of the analysis are still classified (declassified document is
redacted to death) but there are some accounts claiming that Dr. Teller
uncovered that the design was viable and would produce a blast within order of
magnitude of the “inspiration”.

If the account above is true it means anything from low single digit kiloton
range to low double digit.

But I do not think today anybody would doubt that. The biggest obstacle to
fission bomb making are materials themselves. Lack of public data to calibrate
would mean nothing to terrorists (1 kiloton is still terror-inducing) and
nation states have no problems in accessing nuclear scientists.

Fortunately, getting enough material is what makes this lunacy impractical.

------
dTal
This whole video is a fascinating window into Soviet engineering culture of
the time, with lots of juicy shots of classic oscilloscopes and the like. I
would give my right arm to see a similar video of their space program.

If, like me, you were confused by the propeller blades being black on takeoff,
despite being painted white earlier in the video - only the _backs_ were
painted, as the aircraft was flying away from the bomb on detonation.

~~~
trebligdivad
All the test equipment, scope cameras, and period radio equipment and radio
operation was fascinating.

------
osipov
The launch and the detonation start here:
[https://youtu.be/nbC7BxXtOlo?t=1309](https://youtu.be/nbC7BxXtOlo?t=1309)

Clips of nuclear "money shots" are at the end of the documentary:
[https://youtu.be/nbC7BxXtOlo?t=1779](https://youtu.be/nbC7BxXtOlo?t=1779)

Makes you wonder how many unreleased "Top Secret" documentaries from the
Soviet Union are still on tapes someplace.

~~~
mhh__
A lot. I'm more interested in Espionage than the Space Program (I imagine if
you asked nicely Roscosmos might give you footage), but to this day there is
more material from the KGB from defectors than official sources (and this
includes material going back a century). The biggest single dump of KGB
archives was from Mitrokhin, who in the burst of freedom after the union
dissolved walked off with a few hundred thousand papers he'd copied (The book
version is a good read).

It will likely remain that way for many years, the Russian Federation is still
chekist just as the Soviet Union was before it - those who criticize Putin do
not live long.

~~~
nowandlater
_The biggest single dump of KGB archives was from Mitrokhin, who in the burst
of freedom after the union dissolved walked off with a few hundred thousand
papers he 'd copied (The book version is a good read)._

If possible, could you point me to the book you're referring to. I'm really
interested in reading this.

~~~
mhh__
[https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/253/25373/the-mitrokhin-
arch...](https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/253/25373/the-mitrokhin-
archive/9780141989488.html)

The original Russian is classified (Make of that what you will - the British
establishment very much did _not_ leave no rock unturned when it came to
soviet infiltration), the English is (I think) available online somewhere, and
the aforementioned book is a summary of his papers.

~~~
nowandlater
Thanks very much. Finding a copy from the states seems to be hit or miss. Some
searching brought me here though:
[https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/52/mitrok...](https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/52/mitrokhin-
archive)

Would you call this a legitamite/equivalent source?

------
ranger207
The video is surprisingly high quality. It almost looks like a movie set,
especially the night scenes. It's really great to watch even for just the
cinematography. You can tell they the filmmakers really cared about the
details.

~~~
coldcode
The music and narration during the explosion reminded me of 1950/1960's sci-fi
movies.

------
Animats
Interesting. Didn't know it had to be carried outside the drop plane.

The control setup is very Russian. The arming and detonation were remotely
controlled from the ground. The pilots couldn't go bomb someplace else.

~~~
saagarjha
I'm sure they'd be shot down if they inexplicably deviated too far from their
course as well.

~~~
rsynnott
Well... yes. I'd think that would be standard practice for any rogue nuclear
bomber.

------
iandanforth
They refer to it as a "clean" bomb and let people walk around at the
hypocenter immediately afterward, saying the radiation measured was
insignificant. How is this possible? Is this a common feature of hydrogen
bombs?

~~~
hinkley
I've I've parsed this properly:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermonuclear_weapon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermonuclear_weapon)

A hydrogen bomb is triggered by a smaller plutonium/depleted uranium device.
It's the moral equivalent of a detonator for C4, with a sprinkle of X-Rays and
plasma on the side.

The punchline is about a third of the way down:

> The fission reactions though, especially the last fission reactions, release
> a tremendous amount of fission products and fallout. If the last fission
> stage is omitted, by replacing the uranium tamper with one made of lead, for
> example, the overall explosive force is reduced by approximately half but
> the amount of fallout is relatively low. The neutron bomb is a hydrogen bomb
> with an intentionally thin tamper, allowing most of the fast fusion neutrons
> as possible to escape.

~~~
rsynnott
That's exactly what was done here. They actually tested the cut-down version;
with a uranium tamper it might have been over 100MT.

------
snoshy
Quite eerie to watch the column of dirt rise so slowly after such a violent
explosion. Same for the aftermath, other than perhaps the melted snow exposing
the red dirt below, the landscape hardly looks any different after the test.

Amazing that the mushroom cloud nearly reached space.

~~~
remcob
Napkin math: That column of dirt went up ~20 km in about 30 seconds. That's
almost twice the speed of sound.

Incredible how its size makes it look slow.

~~~
trhway
>That's almost twice the speed of sound.

a bit of pedantism - giving that it was air heated by the radiation and shock
wave the speed of sound was much higher, so while going up very fast, the dirt
being moved up by convection and pressure differential may have still moved
subsonically wrt. the local speed of sound.

~~~
remcob
I put the speed of sound purely as a comparison. The local speed of sound is
irrelevant because the dust was moving _with_ the medium and not _relative to_
the medium.

~~~
trhway
Except for the situation of being directly impacted by shockwave, the medium -
air in this case - can't move faster than the speed of sound, ie the speed
with which the pressure differential causing the movement is propagated. Once
the fireball expanded and shockwave passed, the mushroom goes up because it's
hot and thus it is moved by the atmospheric pressure. For example you wouldn't
have mushroom going up without an atmosphere. It is able to go that fast
because the whole surrounding volume was preheated by radiation and the
shockwave with the resulting speed of sound increase .

------
refurb
The clip from 250km away looks like the sun on the horizon.

~~~
ninjin
The analogy is very apt, from “Two Suns in the Sunset” [1] with Pink Floyd:

“The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in

Gives way and suddenly it’s day again

The sun is in the east

Even though the day is done

Two suns in the sunset, hmph

Could be the human race is run”

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TSz30Nj2n4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TSz30Nj2n4)

For some reason I never understood why the record has such a bad reputation, I
am a huge fan of both the Waters’ and Gilmour eras.

~~~
magicalhippo
Björk's "One day"[1] as well:

"The atmosphere Will get lighter And two suns ready To shine just for you

[...]

An aeroplane Will curve gracefully Around the volcano With the eruption that
never lets you down

[...]

And the beautifulness Fireworks will burn in In the sky Ooh just for you"

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-nDLfFmEq8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-nDLfFmEq8)

------
cbfrench
Detonation footage begins just after 22:40 for those (like me) looking for the
big boom.

------
liability
This film shows a number of what appear to be ordinary off-the-shelf cameras
being used to record data, for instance at 5:01 and 12:55. Are those Zorkis?

~~~
vl
It’s interesting how they did the shot of the bomb on the parachute. It’s
either not the real bomb (test drop of a dummy?), or camera operator should
have been in the kill zone.

------
emmelaich
Video is weird. It plays a bomb sound at the same time as the explosion is
seen. And the sound is just like the classic stock bomb sound found in movies
and video games throughout the 80s.

[https://youtu.be/nbC7BxXtOlo?t=1720](https://youtu.be/nbC7BxXtOlo?t=1720)

------
akmarinov
They wanted it to be a 100 megaton bomb, but that meant sacrificing the crew
of the plane that dropped it.

~~~
trhway
in USSR it meant sacrificing the plane.

Anyway, looking at those explosions these days it usually reminds me that the
total produced nukes by both sides - 100K+ - was sufficient to send an Orion
style space ship to the closest star with 1-3% of the speed of light.

------
mongol
I was missing a segment on when they armed the bomb. Given it's absolutely
massive explosive power I would assume they wanted to avoid a crash at the
airport to detonate it. But perhaps it was armed already when attached to the
plane?

------
dandanua
This documentary looks like a fairy tale with an appropriate storyteller,
music and narration. Like a massive nuclear bomb is the happiest achievement
of the humankind. How schizophrenic is that??

------
archsurface
Love the cheerful music.

~~~
tgsovlerkhgsel
If you like cheezy cheerful music accompanying nuclear destruction, watch
[https://youtu.be/HWZXinRwCaE?t=210](https://youtu.be/HWZXinRwCaE?t=210)

~~~
liability
A North Korean take on this theme:
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=ADN0H6MREHA](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ADN0H6MREHA)

~~~
sudosysgen
A North Korean pop song about the nuclear destruction of the US is not
something I expected to be seeing today. It was quite disturbing.

The song itself wasn't bad, though.

------
monkpit
> The flash dome itself reached 20 km, while the ring of absolute destruction
> had a radius of 35 kilometers

Is there another term for “ring of bsolute destruction”? When I google that,
all of the results are either for a book with that in part of the title, or a
guitar effect pedal, or this article itself.

I’d like to read more about this - can anyone suggest a better search term?

~~~
konart
I assume this is just a word-for-word translation for "зона полного
разрушения".

If you "detonate" 100M Tzar Bomb on
[https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/](https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/) it
tells you that

>Moderate blast damage radius (5 psi): 32.6 km

So I assume that the “ring of absolute destruction” ~= "Moderate blast damage
radius"

------
azinman2
How could it be that these guys were cleared to go in and measure the
radiation? They’re there to get accurate measurements, in which case they
could then see themselves that it was astronomical. Did they just knowingly
sacrifice themselves? Or does the radiation spread and it really is low at the
blast site?

------
tomcam
> The Tu-95 plane carrying the bomb was far away at the time of detonation.
> However, the explosion’s shock wave caused the aircraft to instantly lose
> 1,000 meters of altitude, but it later landed safely.

I assume the pilots were fully prepped, but... still seems like a bad day

------
EGreg
How was the radioactivity insignificant a few hours after the bomb detonation?
I read totally the opposite regarding the radioactive cloud and ash.

------
noisy_boy
The equipment looked great - I wouldn't mind return of atleast some shiny
steel switches on modern equipment.

------
rustoo
Q: What if this bomb was exploded below the ground, and not above?

~~~
jcims
The Cannikin test was 5MT and still pretty mindblowing:

[https://www.military.com/video/nuclear-bombs/nuclear-
weapons...](https://www.military.com/video/nuclear-bombs/nuclear-
weapons/cannikin-nuclear-test-footage/1402452751001)

------
f0ok
It's very clean hydrogen indeed.

------
aaron695
Wow, the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation is amazing.

It's what science used to be in the golden age in the West.

[https://rosatom.ru/en/](https://rosatom.ru/en/)

[http://rosatomnewsletter.com/](http://rosatomnewsletter.com/)

[https://twitter.com/RosatomGlobal](https://twitter.com/RosatomGlobal)

[https://www.facebook.com/rosatom.global/](https://www.facebook.com/rosatom.global/)

Maybe scientists need to defect to get work done?

How exactly does a nuclear icebreaker work ️? We thought you'd never ask.
[https://rosatom.ru/en/rosatom-group/the-nuclear-
icebreaker-f...](https://rosatom.ru/en/rosatom-group/the-nuclear-icebreaker-
fleet/)

~~~
082349872349872
The virus interferes at the moment, but I'd half like to book a cruise on the
"50 years of victory" before it becomes redundant, after the next 20 or 30
years of polar warming.

(Is it still defection if one migrates from one capitalist country to
another?)

~~~
aaron695
I was about to say I'd join you, but at the prices here I can't this decade :(

[https://www.quarkexpeditions.com/expedition-
ships/50-years-o...](https://www.quarkexpeditions.com/expedition-
ships/50-years-of-victory)

------
sbhn
Anything russia is capable of, that scares america, is promoted by the
american administration since, well, that is there job security, ie, saving
you from the enemy. Maybe its fake news, but the money to be made from
validating it, ie converting public money into a private monet, is to good an
opportunity to refuse.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
This was released by Rosatom, which the US administration does not control.

~~~
Andrew_nenakhov
According to some members of the Congress, the US administration is controlled
by us Russians. 4d chess you know.

~~~
chromedev
Yes, but they aren't scared of bombs but instead hidden tapes.

