- Parts from a hydrogen-fuel-cell Toyota Mirai were reportedly used in combat this month
- The device, assembled by Ukrainian forces, is said to have weighed about 200 kg (440 lbs)
- The 5-kg (11-lb) fuel cell in a Mirai is more typically impenetrable and not an explosion risk
Given the subject matter, there will be no witticisms or pithy phrases in this article. Reports from the front lines in the Ukraine-Russia conflict suggest Ukrainian fighters have been successful in using parts and pieces from a hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai to deliver and detonate a bomb directed at their enemy.
Parts scavenged from a wrecked Mirai fuel-cell vehicle for the effort apparently included a fully loaded fuel cell. The entire device, including components from a pizza delivery robot, alleged to have served as the means of autonomous control, may have weighed about 200 kilograms (440 lbs) in total. We will note that a modern Mirai holds approximately five kilograms (11 lbs) of hydrogen.
The social media post below, linked to a group called Deep State UA (it stands for “Ukranian resistance”) and which seems to include an ethnic slur against Russians along with other details about the bomb, purportedly shows footage of the Mirai parts and associated cargo headed autonomously over a damaged bridge to its destination. The clip culminates in its blast and resulting destruction.
A remarkable mushroom cloud is shown erupting from the scene upon detonation, scattering bits and pieces all over. Reports suggest the blast has a force equivalent to about 400 tons of TNT; to put that in perspective, an incident at the Chinese port of Tianjin in 2015 was estimated to have been of roughly equal force, and nearly 200 people were killed. Closer to home, 400 tons of TNT is about 15% of the impact of the Halifax explosion which levelled parts of that city in 1917.
While this blast did produce a mushroom cloud and is indeed a hydrogen bomb in the strict sense of the term, it doesn’t seem that any nuclear material was at play in this instance; the colloquial name “hydrogen bomb” is closely associated with thermonuclear warfare. Nor should anyone think that each and every Mirai is a rolling munitions threat — the fuel cell developed by Toyota is nigh impenetrable under normal use.
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