Gallery Bouglaf -- level III

This is "Tsar", responsible for the biggest man-made explosion in history with its 50 -- 58 megaton yield in October 1961.� The Kremlin had originally called for 100 megaton, but settled for "Tsar" as a quick job. At some 4000 times the power of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, the explosion was so huge it unnerved everyone who witnessed it. Scientifically, "Tsar" was something of a triumph for the Soviets, producing little fall-out for its terrible size as a result of its high efficiency. The parachute-retarded air-detonation seriously damaged a town 50 miles away. Click the link to see top Soviet bomb-scientist Igor Kurchatov on level XVI.

This shot indicates the extent to which things got out of hand during the secret moon testing programme in the late 1960s.

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