Soviet Doomsday Weapon

[SVPD]

A gentleman on another board I frequent is telling me the soviets attempted to build a 1000 megaton weapon to, according to him, vaporize "a large chunk of the ocean" and end the world with vaporized radioactive water.

I ran the explosion effects calculator, and 1000 megatons seems pretty insufficient to do that.

Has anyone ever heard of any soviet attempt to design or build anything like this?

The only thing I ever heard of was the Czar Bomba in 1958 (If I recall right) at 57 megatons.

[mauldooku]

[wautd]

pic saved to hd

[wautd]

A gentleman on another board I frequent is telling me the soviets attempted to build a 1000 megaton weapon to, according to him, vaporize "a large chunk of the ocean" and end the world with vaporized radioactive water.

I ran the explosion effects calculator, and 1000 megatons seems pretty insufficient to do that.

Has anyone ever heard of any soviet attempt to design or build anything like this?

The only thing I ever heard of was the Czar Bomba in 1958 (If I recall right) at 57 megatons.

wasnt that in one of the Planet of the Apes movies?

[Firefox]

The most I know of is that Tsar Bomba was scaled down from a 100MT device, and that was to allow it to be carried by an aircraft, in addition to allowing the aircraft to escape.

He may have been referring to rumors about the cobalt-salted device, but it wouldn't have made the weapon more powerful, rather increasing the lethality by spreading significantly more long-half-life material.

[felineki]

"WE'LL BLOW UP THE OCEAN!!!"

Someone had to say it.

[Vanas]

"We only created it because we knew that you were building a Doomsday Device!"

"That's preposterous!"

"Our source was the New York Times!"

We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but ! know we'll meet again some sunny day...

[Nephtys]

Well, they did have a 60MT bomb that was a down-scaled 100-MT device. The closest thing to a doomsday bomb I can think of was a multi-megaton cobalt-seeder bomb, that would literally attempt to spread long halflife cobalt isotopes as extra fallout. But it's hardly a world-killer. Just bad for the envrionment.

And oh. Vaporizing water with a nuclear bomb? About as plausable as psychic-shield tinfoil hats.

[Lord Zentei]

Well, they did have a 60MT bomb that was a down-scaled 100-MT device. The closest thing to a doomsday bomb I can think of was a multi-megaton cobalt-seeder bomb, that would literally attempt to spread long halflife cobalt isotopes as extra fallout. But it's hardly a world-killer. Just bad for the envrionment.

And oh. Vaporizing water with a nuclear bomb? About as plausable as psychic-shield tinfoil hats.

Damn, you beat me to mentioning the Cobalt bomb.

Anyway, it is mentioned on the main site in the "planet killers" page (mainly to show that it is not, in fact, a planet killer).

[SVPD]

Thanks.. By the way, I figured out that, at 100% efficiency (all the energy going to vaporization of water) a 1000 megaton bomb would vaporize around 0.4 cu km of water.

Not exactly a "large chunk of the ocean."

[Vanas]

And oh. Vaporizing water with a nuclear bomb? About as plausable as psychic-shield tinfoil hats.

Um. Aren't nuclear bombs, you know... really, really hot? And the major definig feature of hot water is that it... well.. vapourises?

[Ma Deuce]

The most I know of is that Tsar Bomba was scaled down from a 100MT device, and that was to allow it to be carried by an aircraft, in addition to allowing the aircraft to escape.

To be absolutely correct, Tsar Bomba wasn't actually scaled down as far as it's size is concerned, they simply removed the bomb's 3rd stage (a uranium fusion tamper) and replaced it with a lead weight, cutting it's original 100MT yield in half. The safety of the carrier aircraft was indeed the overriding concern in this desision...

[Nephtys]

And oh. Vaporizing water with a nuclear bomb? About as plausable as psychic-shield tinfoil hats.

Um. Aren't nuclear bombs, you know... really, really hot? And the major definig feature of hot water is that it... well.. vapourises?

I meant as a mechanism for killing all life on Earth. Doing that by vaporizing water to radioactive steam is really, really silly.

[Medic]

I dunno exactly but on time on the History channel they vaguely mentioned this Soviet super-weapon -- basically it was a freight ship or oil tanker looking doohicky that was a floating nuclear bomb. I imagine this is what he's thinking of.

[Col. Crackpot]

A gentleman on another board I frequent is telling me the soviets attempted to build a 1000 megaton weapon to, according to him, vaporize "a large chunk of the ocean" and end the world with vaporized radioactive water.

I ran the explosion effects calculator, and 1000 megatons seems pretty insufficient to do that.

Has anyone ever heard of any soviet attempt to design or build anything like this?

The only thing I ever heard of was the Czar Bomba in 1958 (If I recall right) at 57 megatons.

57 megatons was with the third stage inert. It would have been much more powerful, but the Russkies didn't have a bomber that could both carry the bomb and get away fast enough after it was dropped.

[weemadando]

The blue water freighter bomb, though a cool concept would have been an enormous dirty bomb... No great effect (though the surf might well have been up in LA), but hopefully enough to get the jetstreams filled with nasty particulates.

[Agent Fisher]

"We only created it because we knew that you were building a Doomsday Device!"

"That's preposterous!"

"Our source was the New York Times!"

"Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you *keep* it a *secret*! Why didn't you tell the world, EH?"

"It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises."

[Shroom Man 777]

Hmmm...this reminds me of Zor's sig: "We'll blow up the ocean!"

[Ma Deuce]

57 megatons was with the third stage inert. It would have been much more powerful

Tsar Bomba was 50MT by the Soviets' own measurements. The Americans incorrectly estimated the yield as 57MT, and given that Tsar Bomba was a major propaganda opportunity for the Soviets, they saw no reason to correct the Americans' erronious, higher yield estimate. And so, everyone believed the 57MT figure, until Soviet records became available to the public after the fall of the USSR.

[Col. Crackpot]

57 megatons was with the third stage inert. It would have been much more powerful

Tsar Bomba was 50MT by the Soviets' own measurements. The Americans incorrectly estimated the yield as 57MT, and given that Tsar Bomba was a major propaganda opportunity for the Soviets, they saw no reason to correct the Americans' erronious, higher yield estimate. And so, everyone believed the 57MT figure, until Soviet records became available to the public after the fall of the USSR.

but wasn't that with the 3rd stage inert?

[Avalon616]

Is it just me, or does this seem like an episode of:



"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"Yeah Brain, but how will all that steam get the squirrels into the tutus?"

[Ma Deuce]

but wasn't that with the 3rd stage inert?

Yes it was, but despite Tsar Bomba being only half as powerful as the ~100MT it could have been with a working 3rd stage, every megaton added to the "official" yield of the test still made the propaganda coup that much bigger to the Soviets, which is why they let everyone believe the 57MT figure.

[sketerpot]

Hmmm...this reminds me of Zor's sig: "We'll blow up the ocean!"

Yes, there was a picture of Blue Laser saying that earlier in the thread.