20 Most Terrifying Nuclear Bombs Ever Created

Top 20 Scariest Nuclear Bombs

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today were looking at the nuclear weaponry and testing that fueled our darkest existential fears.

#20: Mark 4 (Operation Sandstone)

Conducted in 1948, Operation Sandstone marked the third series of nuclear tests carried out by the United States. The goal was to test new bomb designs. Before Operation Sandstone even concluded, the production of old cores was axed in favor of one of the newly-tested designs, and the Mark 4 nuclear bomb was born. Based on the Mark 3 Fat Man bomb, the Mark 4 became the first mass-produced atomic weapon. Because it was easier to manufacture, the Mark 4 signaled a pivotal moment in the nuclear arms race. While each piece of its predecessor had to be assembled by trained technicians under controlled conditions, the Mark 4 allowed for a more efficient modular assembly. By 1953, approximately 500 of these bombs had been created.

#19: Gerboise Bleue

In February 1960, France conducted its first atomic test, becoming the fourth nuclear power after the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom. Gerboise Bleue was the largest detonation initiated by any country as a first test. With a yield of 70 kilotons, the bomb was more than three times as powerful as the Fat Man bomb used in the Nagasaki bombing. The official test records were heavily guarded, but over time, former military personnel came forward to accuse the French government of carrying out secret tests on humans to study the effects of radiation exposure. Immediately after Gerboise Bleue, soldiers were sent out with little protection near the detonation site and ordinary citizens were also affected.

#18: Project 596

Codenamed Miss Qiu, Project 596 was Chinas first atomic bomb. The success of the test gave rise to multiple subsequent nuclear tests for China, all occurring at the Lop Nur test site in the Xinjiang region. Just a few years after Project 596, the countrys first thermonuclear test took place. With an astonishing 3.3 megaton yield, that blast was 200 times more powerful than the bomb used on Hiroshima. The toll of such prolific testing in the area remains unknown. However, some reports indicate that as many as 194,000 people may have died due to radiation exposure, and millions more may have been exposed to levels high enough to cause cancer and fetal damage and it all started with Miss Qiu.

#17: Operation Hurricane

The first British atomic test, Operation Hurricane, commenced on October 3, 1952. Although initially considered a great victory for the U.K., jubilation was short-lived. The test was quickly outdated by the successful testing of the worlds first hydrogen bomb in the U.S. The human toll of Operation Hurricane soon also became apparent. The men who worked on the test seemed fine, returning to their regular lives, but when they became fathers, the damage from their radiation exposure was clear. For many, their wives experienced numerous miscarriages, or their children were born with debilitating health conditions. The Operation Hurricane test site is now a wildlife park. However, visitors are advised not to take home any of the test fragments that still pepper the beach.

#16: George (Operation Tumbler-Snapper)

To better study blast effects and further weapons development, the U.S. initiated yet another series of atmospheric nuclear tests in 1952, referred to as Operation Tumbler-Snapper. During the Snapper phase, the military also conducted Desert Rock IV, a series of military operations and maneuvers designed to gain knowledge and experience within nuclear battlefield conditions. The radioactive fallout from Operation Tumbler-Snapper was much higher than anticipated. Shot George, one of the last bombs detonated in the series, exposed more American citizens than any other atomic test ever conducted. Of the 1,032 nuclear tests carried out in the U.S., George is responsible for roughly 7% of all radiation exposure to the population.

#15: Ivy Mike (Operation Ivy)

On November 1, 1952, the U.S. successfully set off the worlds first hydrogen bomb, codenamed Ivy Mike. As part of Operation Ivy, the test took place just after 7 a.m. on a remote island at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. With a massive yield of 10.4 megatons, Ivy Mike generated a fireball spanning over three miles and left a large crater where the island had once been. The blast pelted coral debris onto ships up to 35 miles away and decimated the neighboring islands, wiping out all vegetation. The Ivy Mike design was quickly weaponized as the Mark 16 nuclear bomb, which was later made obsolete by Castle Bravo.

#14: Project 56

The U.S. initiated testing at the Nevada Test Site in November 1955 to determine if damaged weapons would produce a nuclear yield. This series of safety tests referred to as Project 56 involved faulting test bombs in various ways before firing them. A test was considered a failure if any nuclear yield was present in the firing. One uranium and three plutonium devices were used. After the tests concluded in January 1956, radioactive dust and debris had contaminated nearly 900 acres of the Nevada Test Site. That area is now known as Plutonium Valley due to its persistent radioactivity. Later attempts to remove the plutonium from the soil were unsuccessful. The site is still used for military safety exercises and radiological surveying.

#13: John and Rainier (Operation Plumbbob)

Carried out between May and October of 1957, Operation Plumbbob involved 29 total nuclear tests. The purpose was to aid in the development of intercontinental and intermediate-range weapons and to test air defense and anti-submarine warheads. Of particular note, during the John shot, five Air Force officers and a cameraman were positioned directly beneath the blast. This unusual PR stunt was meant to illustrate how nuclear weapons could potentially be used over populated areas without causing any adverse radiation side effects on civilians. Another notable test conducted as part of Operation Plumbbob was the Rainier shot. As the first fully contained underground test, Rainier generated a shock wave so intense that it was detectable by seismic instruments across the globe.

#12: 2017 North Korean Nuclear Test

On September 3, 2017, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization detected unusual seismic activity in North Korea. Further analysis indicated the event was consistent with a manufactured explosion and occurred near the North Korean nuclear test site. The event was significantly larger than any previous event documented in the area. The North Korean government made an official announcement claiming that a hydrogen bomb had been successfully detonated, calling the device a variable yield weapon with adjustable explosive power. While some doubts linger about the overall success of the operation and its true magnitude, experts tend to agree that the bomb detonated was indeed a thermonuclear device. This development dramatically increased any threat imposed by the Korean People's Army Strategic Force.

#11: First Lightning (RDS-1)

The first successful test of an atomic bomb by the Soviet Union in August 1949 rattled the United States government. While the U.S. anticipated the Soviet development of a nuclear device, First Lightning, also known as RDS-1, arrived sooner than expected, accelerating the nuclear arms race and amping up Cold War tensions between the two world superpowers. First Lightning had a nuclear yield of 22 kilotons and was comparable to the Fat Man bombs developed by the U.S. Data collected indicated that the explosion was 50% more destructive than pre-test estimates predicted. After some additional testing, the manufacture of RDS-1 bombs commenced in 1951, intensifying the already existing pressure within the U.S. to develop the first hydrogen bomb.

#10: Trinity (Manhattan Project)

It was in a remote location in New Mexico that the world experienced its first nuclear explosion. Eager to try out their then-new design in an effort to end the Second World War, the U.S. Army began assembling The Gadget (as the bomb was nicknamed) in a ranch house on July 13, 1945. They hoisted it onto a 100-foot firing tower, from which they dropped it at 5:30 a.m. on July 16th. The tower vaporized, the desert shook under a searing blast wave, and a mushroom cloud formed. Though a simple test, it was that bomb that triggered the Nuclear Age, which was a period characterized by suspicion, paranoia, and fear.

#9: B-41

Also known as the Mk-41, this bomb was called the most efficient weapon ever built at the time of its creation - when comparing its weight to its yield, or the amount of energy it emits at detonation. In fact, with a maximum yield of 25 megatons, this bomb has the ability to release the same destructive power as 25 million tons of TNT. Had it been detonated, it would have produced a fireball almost 4 miles wide, burned people to the third degree about 32 miles away and annihilated most structures within 15 miles. Although never used in actual warfare, the B-41 remains the most powerful nuclear bomb ever created by the United States.

#8: Cherokee (Operation Redwing)

With a yield of simply 3.8 megatons, this bomb was far from the biggest to be dropped by the United States at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Detonated during the militarys Operation Redwing, which saw 17 nuclear test discharges in 1956, Cherokee was, however, the countrys first hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bomb to be delivered and dropped by air. What made this weapon even more terrifying was the navigation error that landed it almost 4 miles off its target, raising the ironic question of how safe nuclear bomb tests really are, even when performed by trained personnel.

#7: Baker (Operation Crossroads)

For Americas first deployment of a nuclear bomb underwater, the weapon was detonated at a depth of 90 feet on July 25, 1946 as part of the Baker test, somewhere near Bikini Atoll. Despite the underwater detonation, the effects of Helen of Bikini were just as destructive - the target naval ship vaporized and a total of 10 ships were sunk, including a damaged heavy cruiser that sank 5 months after the test - as a result of irreparable hull damage. Despite plans to test another bomb named Charlie in the area, severe decontamination problems brought the project to a halt 16 days after the blast, as the bomb had covered an unprecedented area with a catastrophic amount of radiation.

#6: Storax Sedan

Although this nuclear detonation at Yucca Flat, Nevada, was supposedly performed to measure its effectiveness for mining and other peaceful, practical purposes... it didnt do much more than cause a lot of damage. Buried over 600 feet below the earth and exploded on July 6, 1962, the bomb removed 11 million tons of dirt and created the biggest man-made crater in the country. For perspective its visible from outer space. The bomb caused the greatest radionuclide activity our atmosphere had ever experienced and contaminated more American civilians with radiation than almost any other nuclear test in history. Its failure ultimately helped spur the development of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban treaty.

#5: Starfish Prime (Operation Fishbowl)

It was in the midst of the Cold War, that, despite a moratorium on atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union and the United States resumed the testing of nuclear weapons. On July 9, 1962, the American military detonated a nuclear warhead some 250 miles over the ground, as part of their Operation Fishbowl. Although scientists had expected an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, after the explosion, the sheer power of the ensuing EMP was shocking. One third of all active satellites were damaged by the pulse, and about 900 miles away in Hawaii, hundreds of streetlights, telephones, alarms, and radios blew, causing outages and blackouts.

#4: SHRIMP (Castle Bravo)

Set off on March 1, 1954, this lithium-deuteride-fueled hydrogen bomb exceeded the militarys expectations and ended up becoming the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever dropped by the United States. To give you an idea of just how destructive the SHRIMP was, its blast was about 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. Although a significant radioactive fallout was expected, due to an error made by designers, the yield of 15 megatons of TNT (much higher than the expected 5-6 megatons) caused enormous environmental contamination for years to come, as well as deaths and illness in over 1000 of the locals.

#3: Fat Man

It was the second, and thankfully, last nuclear weapon ever used in warfare, and it was dropped over the city of Nagasaki in Japan on August 9, 1945 during the Second World War. Between 35-40,000 people died instantly during the explosion, while an estimated 80,000 died in total as a result of leukemia, radiation poisoning, and burn injuries. The vast majority of these casualties were civilians and industrial workers. Much of the industrial production in the city took months and even years to repair. But in the end, it was just 6 days after this bomb was dropped that Japan announced its surrender.

#2: Little Boy

Its codename sounds innocent, but this bomb was anything but, as it was the first of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war and the most destructive in terms of human casualties. Coming less than a month after the Trinity test, Little Boy was dropped over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Although a less powerful bomb than its successor, with a yield of 15-16 kilotons, the flat terrain of the city and the firestorm that ensued ultimately resulted in more deaths, with 66,000 people dying in the initial blast, and tens of thousands more perishing in the aftermath due to illness. Though these two bombs arguably ended the war they came with an unfathomable cost.

#1: Tsar Bomba

Some of the most powerful nuclear detonations in history have been from the Soviet Union, and this is the biggest of them all. Detonated shortly after Nikita Khrushchev's promise to show the United States what theyve got, Tsar Bomba (also nicknamed Vanya and Big Ivan) was dropped on October 30, 1961, north of the Arctic Circle over the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The yield of the bomb was over 50 megatons, or 50 million tons of TNT. The mushroom cloud grew to a height of seven Mount Everests, and the blast was so strong it broke windows 560 miles away. The Tsar Bomba showed, more than anything else, the capacity of humankinds destructiveness.



Are there any other nuclear bombs that cause you to lose sleep at night? Let us know in the comments!