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 1 March , the device remains the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States and the first lithium deuteride -fueled thermonuclear weapon tested using the Teller-Ulam design. Radioactive nuclear fallout , the heaviest of which was in the form of pulverized surface coral from the detonation, fell on residents of Rongelap and Utirik atolls, while the more particulate and gaseous fallout spread around the world.
The inhabitants of the islands were evacuated only three days later and suffered radiation sickness. The blast incited a strong international reaction over atmospheric thermonuclear testing. The Castle Bravo device was housed in a cylinder that weighed 23, pounds 10, kg and measured This boosted fission device had been tested in the Upshot-Knothole Climax event and yielded 61 kilotons of TNT [kt] TJ out of 50β70 kt expected yield range.
It was considered successful enough that the planned operation series Domino , designed to explore the same question about a suitable primary for thermonuclear bombs, could be canceled. It was located at the end of the device, which, as seen in the declassified film, shows a small cone projecting from the ballistic case.
This cone is the part of the paraboloid that was used to focus the radiation emanating from the primary into the secondary.
The device was called SHRIMP , and had the same basic configuration radiation implosion as the Ivy Mike wet device, except with a different type of fusion fuel. Castle Bravo was the first test by the United States of a practical deliverable fusion bomb , even though the TX as proof-tested in the Bravo event was not weaponized. It also used a 3.
