The W54, weighing only 51 pounds, was the smallest nuclear weapon known to the public. A critical mass of plutonium is approximately 10.5 kg, and increasing it by 10% can create a nuclear weapon with a yield of 10-20 tons. The smallest nuclear weapons’ yield would be in this range, but their existence is likely classified.
The smallest nuclear weapon known to the public was the W54, a 10.6″ x 15.7″ (27.3 x 40 cm) cylinder weighing only 51 pounds (23 kg). The W54 was used in both the Davy Crockett recoilless rifle (a nuclear mortar for ground troops) and the Mk-54 SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition), a hand-delivered nuclear time bomb for attacking enemy ports. The W54 prototype, tested during Operation Hardtack in 1954, was even smaller, only 10.6 x 11.8 cm (27″ x 30″), close to what many nuclear scientists think is the theoretically smallest nuclear weapon. The Davy Crockett had a yield of 10-20 tons – deliberately kept low to be safe from the shooter – while the SADM had a variable yield between 10 tons and 1 kiloton.
To create a nuclear weapon requires a critical mass of fissile material and a frame for a pistol-type trigger or explosive lenses. A critical mass of plutonium is approximately 10.5 kg (23 pounds), 10.1 cm (4 inches) in diameter. This isn’t enough to start a multiplicative chain reaction, but it produces enough radiation to be deadly if you held it in your hand.
To produce a chain reaction it is necessary to increase the plutonium, just a little: only 10% more critical mass is enough to create a nuclear weapon with a yield of 10-20 tons, already in the range of the Davy Crockett warhead . 20% of the critical mass gives a yield of 100 tons, while 35% of the critical mass can reach 250 tons. The smallest nuclear weapons would have a yield somewhere in this range.
The public cannot know for sure which is the smallest nuclear weapon, because it is probably classified. The Soviet Union has worked on a variety of nuclear weapons that remain completely secret, and so has the United States, although there is more transparency in the latter case. A former Soviet general, Alexander Lebed, claimed the existence of “nuclear bombs” in a press interview in September 1997, setting off a chain of speculations as to whether the smallest nuclear weapon could fit in a suitcase measuring 60 x 40 x 20cm. The general consensus is that this would be enough space to create a nuclear weapon, especially for a technologically sophisticated country. However, there is little concrete evidence of this.
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