Any nuclear technicians?

[jdbnsn]

Wow! I'll bet you have some stories (tap..tap...). Over beers...soon.

[jdbnsn]

Taking a guess here but I recall something referred to as the "Czar Bomb", would that be it?

I missed this response. The Tsar was name of a particular mammoth H-bomb Russian design, the largest ever detonated in history. It is however very relevant to the subject though because it's design was based on the very principal that was causing the Soviets to lose the Cold War. Khrushckev and the Soviet hard-liners were so focused on the idea that bigger was better (missile envy), that they designed bombs that were not as easily deployed and thus tactically irrelevant when faced with faster, more accurate designs. Not all of their designs suffered this conceptual flaw though. Infact, again during the 1980's, there was another incident that triggered an inter-continental frenzy. The CIA noted from their satellite intelligence that very suddenly, soviet missile CEP's (circumference of error probability) began to decline which indicated that the Russians had developed a much more reliable targeting system than had the west which resulted in a panic in the US weapons designers.

[halcyonforever]

Not that all US bombs were small in nature, the early H-Bomb test involved a weapon the size of a small office building. Quite comical.

[jdbnsn]

Yeah, even the later H-bombs were substantially larger than their uranium counterparts.

[Acey]

informative.. i usually only notice the mushroom-shaped burst, not the little streaks at the side. *thumbs up*