The RDS-2 (Russian: РДС-2) was the second atomic bomb developed by the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
as an improved version of the
RDS-1
The RDS-1 (), also known as Izdeliye 501 (device 501) and First Lightning (), was the nuclear bomb used in the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test. The United States assigned it the code-name Joe-1, in reference to Joseph Stalin. It was de ...
. It included new
explosive lens
An explosive lens—as used, for example, in nuclear weapons—is a highly specialized shaped charge. In general, it is a device composed of several explosive charges. These charges are arranged and formed with the intent to control the sha ...
es along with a new
core
Core or cores may refer to:
Science and technology
* Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages
* Core (laboratory), a highly specialized shared research resource
* Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding
* Core (optical fiber ...
design to decrease the probability of
pre-detonation or 'fizzle'. The RDS-2 weighed approximately and had a diameter of 1.25 m. The RDS-2 was tested on September 24, 1951 and produced a 38.3
kiloton
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. A ton of TNT equivalent is a unit of energy defined by convention to be (). It is the approximate energy released in the det ...
yield. It was detonated from the top of a tower thirty meters high. The detonation was initiated by a bomber flying over the testing site instead of the detonation being initiated by a ground control center.
See also
*
Soviet atomic bomb project
The Soviet atomic bomb project was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons during and after World War II.
Russian physicist Georgy Flyorov suspected that the Allied powers were secretly developing a " superwea ...
*
RDS-1
The RDS-1 (), also known as Izdeliye 501 (device 501) and First Lightning (), was the nuclear bomb used in the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test. The United States assigned it the code-name Joe-1, in reference to Joseph Stalin. It was de ...
*
RDS-3
RDS-3 () was the third atomic bomb developed by the Soviet Union in 1951, after the RDS-1 and RDS-2. It was called ''Marya'' in the military. The bomb had a composite design with a plutonium core inside a uranium shell, providing an explosive powe ...
Notes
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{{Soviet nuclear weapons
1951 in military history
1951 in the Soviet Union
Nuclear bombs of the Soviet Union
Nuclear proliferation
Nuclear weapons of the Soviet Union
Nuclear weapons policy
Soviet nuclear weapons testing