Ivy King - The Biggest Atomic Bomb detonated -
Ivy King was detonated on November 15th, 1952. Airdrop test of Mk-18, detonated about 1500ft above sea level near Runit island.
King was a test of a prototype Mk-18 Super Oralloy Bomb. The SOB was made of components from bombs that were
already stockpiled. The bomb was based on the Mk-6. The implosion system used a 92 lens implosion system from a Mk-13.
The core had about 60kg of oralloy surrounded by a natural uranium tamper.
Since the bomb contained a big amount of oralloy (more than 4 critical masses) the safety of the bomb was a major concern.
The center of the core had an aluminum and boron chain to absorb the neutrons in case of an collapse of the oralloy. The collapse of the oralloy core will result in undesired detonation.
The chain in the core was taken out when the bomb was dropped from the bomber.
Mk-6 Casing
Ivy King detonation
Ivy King mushroom cloud
This SOB had become the highest yield atomic bomb ever detonated. Predicted yield was 400 to 600kt. The yield of the bomb was 500kt; That is 40 times powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.("Little Boy" Mk-1, 15kt) Here the term
"atomic bomb" is a bomb that is not fusion boosted, and all the yield comes from fission. There were other fusion boosted atomic bomb tested that achived higher yields; hydrogen bombs have a much higher yield.
Even though the SOB was a pure fission bomb, the first Soviet hydrogen bomb (Slokia/Layer Cake)
Joe-4 had a lower yield (400kt) than the SOB.
Last Updated: 11-17-97
Most of the pictures are from High Energy Weapon Archive
Most of the photos also are Department of Energy (DoE) photographs.
Ivy King - The Biggest Atomic Bomb detonated -