Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter; a modern thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than a thousand kilograms can produce an explosion comparable to the detonation of more than a billion kilograms of conventional high explosive.
Thus, even single small nuclear devices no larger than traditional bombs can devastate an entire city by blast, fire and radiation. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction, and their use and control has been a major focus of international relations policy since their debut.
In the history of warfare, only two nuclear weapons have been detonated offensively, both near the end of World War II. The first was detonated on the morning of 6 August 1945, when the United States dropped a uranium gun-type device code-named "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The second was detonated three days later when the United States dropped a plutonium implosion-type device code-named "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki, Japan. These bombings resulted in the immediate deaths of around 120,000 people (mostly civilians) from injuries sustained from the explosion and acute radiation sickness, and even more deaths from long-term effects of ionizing radiation. The use of these weapons was and remains controversial.
Since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for testing purposes and demonstration purposes. A few states have possessed such weapons or are suspected of seeking them. The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons—and that acknowledge possessing such weapons—are (chronologically) the United States, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, the People's Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is also widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it does not acknowledge having them.
And the only bombs that are aggressively detonated are those of what this article said(Little Boy and Fat Man)
Wow...I'm in!
It might be worth mentioning that the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated was the Tsar Bomba on the island of Novaya Zemlya (Russia). This weapon, weighing in at over 8 tonnes, delivered by a specially adapted bomber (and it still wouldn't fully fit in the bombing bay) was only about half the power (50MT) it was originally designed to be (100MT). The reason for this was that the original would have a 50/50 fission/fusion ratio, which, at this magnitude, would have raised global atmospheric radiation levels by about 24%. The final bomb was approx. 97% fusion with only 3% fission to get the process started.
Detonated at 4km above the surface, the fireball (8km across) engulfed the ground below, rocks and boulders at ground zero were melted and turned to ash, after which the fireball rose to a height of roughly 64km before flattening out. Ground zero was levelled entirely, the seismic shockwave was still measurable on its third pass around the Earth and there have been reports of windows being blown out as far as in Finland and even Sweden. Blast damage reached about a thousand kilometres. The destruction radius would have wiped out a city the size of Paris entirely.
It's estimated that the weapon's power was about three times greater than anything the Americans had or have.
That's Soviet Power for you.
everyone has nuclear weapons, but they dont accept they have them. that Tsar Bomba sounds terrifying.
It was. But it's completely impractical for true weaponised/offensive purposes, as it's too big and heavy to effectively deliver. It's also prone to take out its delivery vehicle out in the blast, which is unfortunate if it's a bombing crew. It was mostly for purposes along the lines of "what you can do, we can do bigger", as they did with the giant bell, giant cannon and even giant prototype tank they have sitting around somewhere. None of them were practical, but very intimidating.