Atomic Bomb Facts for Kids

An atomic bomb mushroom cloud

This web page contains atomic bomb facts for kids and is an excellent resource for anyone of any age looking to learn about nuclear weapons. Our goal is to provide you with accurate, up to date facts about nuclear bombs. In addition to facts about atomic bombs, we provide additional resources to help you with your research on these power weapons.

The atomic bomb facts below will help you learn about the first nuclear explosion, who invented the atomic bomb, how atomic bombs work, the types of nuclear bombs and other atomic bomb related facts. We hope these nuclear weapons facts are interesting and help you learn more about this history changing weapon.

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28 Atomic Bomb Facts for Kids

  1. An atomic bomb is a weapon of mass destruction that produces a massive explosion from a nuclear reaction.
  2. Atomic bombs are also known as atom bombs, a-bombs, nuclear bombs, nuclear weapons and nukes.
  3. There are two types of nuclear weapons, fission weapons and fusion weapons.
  4. A fission bomb, called an atomic bomb, generates its explosion from a fission reaction.
  5. A fusion bomb, called a thermonuclear weapon or hydrogen bomb, generates its explosion from both a fission and fusion reaction.
  6. The United States of America was the first country to develop a nuclear weapon via the Manhattan Project.
  7. Trinity was the code name for the first man made nuclear explosion on July 16th, 1945, at 5:29 am PST.
  8. It was calculated that the Trinity test produced a yield of 22 kilotons of TNT.
  9. Nuclear weapons are very destructive, one high yield bomb can destroy an entire major city, kill millions of people and produce fallout over a large area.
  10. A nuclear winter is a hypothetical outcome of a nuclear war. It’s theorized that a full-scale nuclear war would cause a severe and prolonged global climate cooling effect. Essentially, the soot from all the damage done by nuclear weapons would block out the sun and dramatically cool the planet.
  11. A tactical nuclear bomb is used against military targets.
  12. A strategic nuclear bomb is used against cities.
  13. An ICBM is an intercontinental ballistic missile that can carry a nuclear warhead at least 3,400 miles.
  14. An SLBM is a submarine-launched ballistic missile that can carry a nuclear warhead and be launched underwater from a submarine.
  15. There are currently nine countries that have nuclear weapons that can be used in a war.
  16. The nine countries with nuclear weapons are the United States of America, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel.
  17. Israel has never officially claimed to have nuclear weapons, but experts believe they’ve had them since 1966.
  18. As of 2014, it’s estimated there are about 15,800 nuclear weapons between the nine countries that own them.
  19. Over 90% of all the nuclear weapons in the world belong to the United States of America and Russia.
  20. The Cold War between the United States of America and Russia (Soviet Union at the time) saw nuclear weapons peak at about 61,000 in 1985.
  21. The largest nuclear bomb ever detonated was the Tsar Bomba, a hydrogen bomb developed by the Soviet Union.
  22. The Tsar Bomba was detonated on October 30th, 1961 and had calculated yield of 50 megatons of TNT.
  23. The largest nuclear bomb ever detonated by the United States was a hydrogen bomb called Castle Bravo.
  24. The Castle Bravo bomb was detonated on March 1st, 1954 and had a calculated yield of 15 megatons of TNT.
  25. The United States of America is the only country to use nuclear weapons during war.
  26. During World War 2, the United States of America attacked Japan twice with nuclear weapons.
  27. On August 6th, 1945, the United States of America denotated the first nuclear weapon above Hiroshima, Japan.
  28. On August 9th, 1945, the United States of America denotated the second nuclear weapon above Nagasaki, Japan.

Additional Resources with Atomic Bomb Facts

  • The Trinity Test – Learn about the Trinity test, which was the first man made nuclear explosion in human history.
  • Nuke Map – A tool that can show you the destruction a nuclear bomb can cause, just enter a city or address.
  • Who Has Nuclear Weapons? – A graphic by the Arms Control Association showing which countries have nuclear weapons.
  • Nuclear Weapons – Wikipedia – Find more facts about the atomic bomb and types of nuclear weapons on the Wikipedia website.

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