Nuclear — fission · USSR · 1953
RDS-6s
RDS-6s “Sloika” (Joe-4)
The first Soviet device to use fusion. It was not yet a true two-stage thermonuclear weapon, but a “boosted” fission device.
See RDS-6s in the 3D simulator- Yield
- 400 ktDocumented
- Energy
- 1.67 PJ
- Type
- Fusion-boosted fission (“layer cake” design)
- Period
- Cold War
- Status
- Single test
RDS-6s releases about 27 times the energy of Little Boy (Hiroshima, 1945).
Key points
- Its layered design could not exceed a few hundred kilotons.
History
Presented at the time as an “H-bomb”, this test came two years before the first true Soviet thermonuclear device (RDS-37).
- 1948 Andrei Sakharov proposes the “layer cake” design.
- 12 August 1953 RDS-6s test.
- 22 November 1955 First two-stage device (RDS-37).
How does it work?
A fission weapon releases energy by splitting heavy nuclei (uranium-235 or plutonium-239). Each fission releases about 200 MeV and a few neutrons.
If these neutrons cause further fissions, a chain reaction runs away in less than a millionth of a second.
The energy heats matter to tens of millions of degrees: fireball, thermal radiation and shock wave.
A small amount of fusion fuel placed at the heart of a fission weapon produces extra neutrons that increase the fission yield.
Deliberately general explanations: the application provides no design or manufacturing information.
Frequently asked questions
How powerful is RDS-6s?
RDS-6s has an estimated yield of 400 kt of TNT equivalent, about 1.67 PJ of energy.
What is the history of RDS-6s?
Single test, on 12 August 1953, at Semipalatinsk. Presented at the time as an “H-bomb”, this test came two years before the first true Soviet thermonuclear device (RDS-37).
What does the RDS-6s explosion look like?
The Bomb Simulator shows the fireball, shock wave and cloud of RDS-6s at real scale, over Paris, London or New York, with the sources and reliability of each value.
Sources
- Joe 4 (RDS-6s) — Wikipedia (overview, to be cross-checked)
Other weapons
- Trinity — 25 kt
- Little Boy — 15 kt
- Fat Man — 21 kt
- RDS-1 — 22 kt
- Hurricane — 25 kt
- Gerboise Bleue — 70 kt
- 596 — 22 kt
- Davy Crockett — 20 t
- Ivy Mike — 10.4 Mt
- Castle Bravo — 15 Mt
- RDS-37 — 1.6 Mt
- Mk 17 — 15 Mt
This application is an educational tool. The animations and effect zones are simplified representations meant to illustrate orders of magnitude. They are neither a prediction of the effects of a real weapon nor a military planning tool.