It was on this frozen dessert island in the most dangerous period of the cold war that the ultimate explosion took place. Nevada Zembla in the artic baron sea is where the Russians demonstrate their nuclear might, testing bombs of ever increasing power.

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October the 30th 1961, they pushed the limits of explosive power further than it ever gone or will probably ever go again. This bomb was code named Bizarre, it contained equivalent of 58 million tons of TNT or all explosives used in World War II multiplied by 10. Although, beaten to build the first atom bomb Russia caught up then over took America in building ever bigger hydrogen bombs. Bizarre, the biggest bomb, the most powerful device mankind has ever constructed was to be there masterpiece and a political show piece too.

Six camera crews with scientist film this unique moment in history. The air crews are hand picked, they have been warned their safety could not be guaranteed. They could avoid being blinded by the light but being knocked out of the sky was quite possible. The exact moment of release was controlled from the ground. The bomb had been given a parachute to slow its decent and give the crew more time to escape.

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They did escape but only just. The plum rose white through the cloud layer and kept on rising. It flattened out when the cloud was 14 miles high. The blast wave was still large enough to be measured on its third passage around the world. Because the bomb was detonated two miles above the ground there was very little radioactive fall out but the earth directly below the burst was seared by the intense heat, rock had been turned to ash.

The bomb was four times bigger than anything America has ever exploded. Why something so large?

The United States could develop very accurate missiles, the soviets never mastered that technique very well and to compensate for that, they really could level a very large--.