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Castle Bravo was the first in a series of high-yield thermonuclear weapon design tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as part of Operation Castle. Detonated on March 1, 1954, the device remains the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States and the first lithium deuteride -fueled ...
English: A simple graphic showing comparative nuclear fireball radii for a number of different tests and warheads. From largest to smallest, the diameter are: Tsar Bomba — 50 Mt — 4.6 km (2.9 mi) Castle Bravo — 15 Mt — 2.84 km (1.76 mi) W59 warhead (Minuteman missile) — 1 Mt — .96 km (0.60 mi)
Comparative fireball radii for a selection of nuclear weapons. [citation needed] Contrary to the image, which may depict the initial fireball radius, the maximum average fireball radius of Castle Bravo, a 15-megatonne yield surface burst, is 3.3 to 3.7 km (2.1 to 2.3 mi), [6] [7] and not the 1.42 km displayed in the image.
But as was discovered in the first test of this type of device, Castle Bravo, when lithium-7 is present, one also has some amounts of the following two net reactions: 7 Li + 1 n → 3 T + 4 He + 1 n 7 Li + 2 H → 2 4 He + 1 n + 15.123 MeV. Most lithium is 7 Li, and this gave Castle Bravo a yield 2.5 times larger than expected. [16]
Operation Castle was an unqualified success for the implementation of dry fuel devices. The Bravo design was quickly weaponized and is suspected to be the progenitor of the Mk-21 gravity bomb. The Mk-21 design project began on 26 March 1954 (just three weeks after Bravo), with production of 275 weapons beginning in late 1955.
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At 12 feet 4.37 inches (3.77 m) long, 58.48 inches (1.49 m) in diameter, a 80.9 inches (2.05 m) span over the fins, and weighing 17,600 pounds (8,000 kg), the Mk 21 was half the length and less than half the weight of the Mk 17/24 weapons it replaced.