Ivy Mike ("Sausage")

"Sausage" (Ivy Mike)

Test deviceUnited StatesThermonuclear (staged)

No freely licensed photo of this device yet.

Yield · TNT equivalent10.4 Mt

Key specs

Country: United States
Design: Thermonuclear (staged)
Type: Test device
Weight: 74 t
Length: 6.19 m
Diameter: 2.03 m
Number built: 1

Overview

The first full-scale test of a two-stage thermonuclear device, fired on 1 November 1952 on Elugelab island at Enewetak Atoll with a yield of 10.4 Mt. The "Sausage" burned liquid deuterium kept at cryogenic temperature, so together with its cooling plant it weighed about 74 tonnes: a laboratory installation, not a weapon.

The test proved the Teller–Ulam design. Elugelab vanished, leaving a crater 1.9 km across and 50 m deep, and the cloud rose to about 41 km. Debris from the explosion led to the discovery of two new elements, einsteinium and fermium.

Effect radii: estimates

Calculated for 10.4 Mt

Fireball, maximum radius: ≈ 2.5 km
Initial radiation, 500 rem (5 Sv): ≈ 4.9 km
Blast 5 psi: most buildings collapse: ≈ 15 km
Thermal: third-degree burns: ≈ 30 km
Blast 1 psi: windows shatter: ≈ 48 km

Estimated ground ranges for an air burst at the optimum height over flat, open ground, computed from the yield with standard scaling laws. These are not measurements: real effects depend on the height of burst, terrain, buildings and weather.

Formulas from: Glasstone & Dolan, The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (1977), chapter II; Carey Sublette, Nuclear Weapons FAQ, section 5

Tests and use

Date	Event	Site	Yield
Nov 1, 1952	Ivy MikeSurface shot; the island was destroyed.	Elugelab, Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands	10.4 Mt

Test footage

Archive films hosted on YouTube. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play; the player then comes from youtube-nocookie.com.

atomcentral · youtube.com

Sources

Ivy Mike, Wikipedia