Editing Tsar Bomba (section)

== Consequences of the test ==

The creation and testing of a superbomb were of great political importance; the Soviet Union demonstrated its potential in creating a nuclear arsenal of great power (at that time, the most powerful thermonuclear charge tested by the United States, [[Castle Bravo]], had been 15 Mt). After the Tsar Bomba test, the United States did not increase the power of its own thermonuclear tests and, in 1963 in Moscow, the [[Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty|Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, Outer Space and Under Water]] was signed.<ref name=Chernyshev/>

The main scientific result of the test was the experimental verification of the principles of calculation and design of multistage thermonuclear charges. It also confirmed the theory that there is no fundamental limit to the power of a thermonuclear charge. This fact had probably been first postulated in October 1949 (three years before the [[Ivy Mike]] test which utilized the [[Teller-Ulam]] design<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/singh-a1/|title=Ivy Mike: How to Wipe Out an Island|website=large.stanford.edu}}</ref>), when in the supplement to the official report of the General Advisory Committee of the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|US Atomic Energy Commission]], nuclear physicists [[Enrico Fermi]] and [[Isidor Isaac Rabi]] stated that thermonuclear weapons can potentially have "unlimited destructive power".<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Дайсон|first= Фримен|title= Оружие и надежда|language= en|orig-date=1984|location =М.|publisher=Прогресс|year=1990|pages=41–42|isbn= 5-01-001882-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Fermi |first1=Enrico |last2=Rabi |first2=Isidor Isaac |title=General Advisory Committee's Majority and Minority Reports on Building the H-Bomb |url=https://www.atomicarchive.com/resources/documents/hydrogen/gac-report.html |publisher=General Advisory Committee to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission |date=October 30, 1949}}</ref>

The explosive power of the bomb could have easily been raised by another 50 Mt by using a uranium-238 sheath instead of lead.<ref name=nweapon.ru/> It was consciously decided to replace the cladding material and thus decrease the yield in order to reduce radioactive fallout below an acceptable level.<ref name=Chernyshev/>

The explosion is one of the cleanest in the history of atmospheric nuclear tests per unit of power. The first stage of the bomb was a uranium charge with a capacity of 1.5 Mt,<ref name=nweapon.ru/> which produced a large amount of radioactive fallout, but more than 97% of the explosion power was provided by a thermonuclear fusion reaction, which does not create a significant amount of radioactive contamination.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://elib.biblioatom.ru/text/atomny-proekt-sssr_t3_kn2_2009/go,440/ |title=Note by A. D. Sakharov, Ya. B. Zel'dovich and V. A. Davidenko to N. I. Pavlov with an estimate of the parameters of products with a capacity of 150 megatons and one billion tons of TNT |access-date=10 December 2020}}</ref>

A 2015 expedition measuring the glaciers of Novaya Zemlya reported 65–130 times more radioactivity than the background in neighboring areas, due to nuclear testing, including Tsar Bomba.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2015/11/30_a_7921283.shtml |title="Кузькина мать" до сих пор фонит |access-date=10 December 2020}}</ref>

[[Andrei Sakharov]] was one of the most prominent speakers against nuclear proliferation. He played a key role in signing the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty. Sakharov became an advocate of civil liberties and reforms in the Soviet Union. In 1973 he was nominated for the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] and in 1974 was awarded the [[Prix mondial Cino Del Duca]]. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, but was not allowed to leave the Soviet Union to collect it. His wife Yelena Bonner read his speech at the acceptance ceremony.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}