Ivy Mike (yield 10.4 mt) – an atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the U.S. at Enewetak Atoll on 1 November 1952. It was the world’s first successful hydrogen bomb.

November 1 2020 — On November 1 1952, the United States detonated  the first full-scale thermonuclear device on the island of Elugelab in Enewetak Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean, as part of Operation Ivy. It was the first full test of the Teller–Ulam design, a staged fusion device. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

RELATED POST: On This Day — Einstein Letter to FDR (October 11 1939)

RELATED POST: One Year Ago — Nukes & Secrecy : The Bethe – Feynman Equation

RELATED POST: On This Day — Atomic Spies Rosenbergs Executed (June 19 1953)

RELATED POST: Remembering Hiroshima (August 6 1945)

RELATED POST: One Year Ago — Significant Uncertainties in the Yield Estimate of North Korea H Bomb

The device was designed by Richard Garwin, a student of Enrico Fermi, on the suggestion of Edward Teller.

It had been decided that nothing other than a full-scale test would validate the idea of the Teller-Ulam design.

The test was carried out on 1 November 1952 at 07:15 local time (19:15 on 31 October, Greenwich Mean Time).

It produced a yield of 10.4 megatons of TNT, around 700 times the explosive power of the weapon dropped on Hiroshima seven years earlier, killing 160,000 people.

Ivy Mike set the infamous record of the largest explosion until then and would be the fourth largest U.S. nuclear test ever conducted.

Ivy Mike – The first hydrogen bomb

“It’s a boy.”

Telegram from Ed Teller to Dr. Elizabeth “Diz” Graves

REFERENCES

Ivy Mike — Wikipedia

=

On This Day — US Detonates First Thermonuclear Weapon (November 1, 1952)

On This Day — US Detonates First Thermonuclear Weapon (November 1, 1952) [2019]

On This Day — US Detonates First Thermonuclear Weapon (November 1, 1952) [2020]