Tsar Bomba (Russian: Царь-бомба; "Emperor Bomb") is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. It's October 30, 1961 test remains the most powerful artificial explosion in human history. It was also referred to as Kuz'kina Mat' (Russian: Кузькина мать, Kuzka's mother), potentially referring to Nikita Khrushchev's promise to show the United States a "Kuz'kina Mat'" at the 1960 United Nations General Assembly. The famous Russian idiom, which has been problematic for translators, equates roughly with the English "We'll show you!" Developed by the Soviet Union, the bomb was originally designed to have a yield of about 100 megatons of TNT (420 PJ), but the yield was reduced to 57 megatons to reduce nuclear fallout (and also to prevent the blast from destroying the drop aircraft). This attempt was successful, as it was one of the cleanest (relative to it's yield) nuclear bombs ever detonated. Only one bomb of this type was ever built and it was tested on October 30, 1961, in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, at Sukhoy Nos.
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