A Russian "doomsday" nuclear torpedo designed to get around U.S. defenses is said to be unstoppable and would create a cloud of nuclear fallout that would leave thousands of miles of land unlivable for decades.
Russia's Ministry of Defense released a video of the nuclear-powered torpedo just days after President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, the Business Insider reported.
The weapon would not only create heat and pressure but would use nuclear waste to punish its enemies for years, an expert noted.
"Nuclear weapons only generate significant amounts of radioactive fallout when they are detonated at, near, or beneath ground level," nuclear weapons author Stephen Schwartz told the Business Insider.
"(These types of nuclear explosions) suck up dirt, or water, contaminates it with debris from the bomb, and then lofts it into the atmosphere," Schwartz said, leaving deadly radioactive fallout potentially strewn across thousands of miles.
Schwartz told the Business Insider the bomb reportedly has its nuclear core coated with metal, making its fallout last for a half century.
Newsweek reported in April that the submersible device had been heralded by Russia as "stronger, faster and more innovative than any previous weapon of its kind."
The weapon reportedly could release a shockwave that could rival or even top the 2011 Japanese earthquake that produced a tsunami powerful enough to kill 15,000 people and cause the Fukushima nuclear power plant to undergo a triple meltdown, the magazine wrote.
Video of the megaton-class Poseidon Oceanic Multipurpose System has received more than 430,000 views on YouTube since it was released by the Russian defense ministry on July 19.
"Trials are underway to verify dynamic characteristics of the vehicle at the training grounds of the Russian Ministry of Defense," the video's caption said.
Russia first leaked images of Poseidon in 2015 and Putin bragged in a March 1 speech that all of its weapons are designed to avoid U.S. defenses, the Business Insider said. As far back as 2010, Russia reportedly augmented a test submarine capable of carrying the large bomb, according to an analysis from H.I. Sutton.
The Business Insider warned, though, that Russia has long pushed military propaganda and could be bluffing about the progress it has made on the weapon. The released video only showed the torpedo in a lab and depends on computer-generated simulation to show its reported abilities, the website added.
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