A hydrogen bomb is a nuclear weapon that releases energy by fusing together light nuclei, unlike atomic bombs that release energy by fissioning heavy atomic nuclei. It is a two-stage weapon that uses an initial fission explosion to cause a fusion explosion. The first test of a hydrogen bomb was in 1952, and the most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested was the Soviet Union’s “Great Ivan” in 1961.
A hydrogen bomb is by far the most destructive weapon mankind has ever invented. It is the most powerful type of nuclear bomb, in some cases reaching more than 2,000 times the yield of nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Unlike early “atomic bombs” – also known as A-bombs – which release energy by fissioning, or crushing, heavy atomic nuclei such as uranium and plutonium, a hydrogen bomb releases energy by fusing together light nuclei such as tritium or deuterium , converting even more matter into energy. When President Truman authorized the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he said that the weapons used the same power as the sun, but in reality that was not true: the sun uses nuclear fusion, not nuclear fission. A hydrogen bomb, however, actually releases the energy that powers the sun.
How does it work?
Nuclear fusion involves creating heavier elements from lighter ones by joining atomic nuclei together. In the Sun, this mostly takes the form of the fusion of hydrogen nuclei to form helium. A fusion reaction is very difficult to start because the nuclei are positively charged and therefore strongly repel each other through the powerful electromagnetic force. Nuclei of elements heavier than hydrogen are held together by the strong nuclear force, which, at this scale, is much stronger than the electromagnetic force. The strong force, however, is only significant over extremely short distances, around the size of an atomic nucleus.
To initiate nuclear fusion, the nuclei must somehow be brought very close together. In the Sun, this is accomplished by gravity. In a hydrogen bomb, it is obtained from a combination of extreme pressure and temperature caused by a fission explosion. A hydrogen bomb is therefore a two-stage weapon: an initial fission explosion causes a fusion explosion. A “primary” fission bomb is detonated in the normal way, which then compresses a “secondary” fusion fuel and lights a uranium “spark plug” which fissions and subjects the fusion fuel to the heat necessary to initiate the reaction – approx. 20,000,000°F (11,000,000°C).
In the Sun, the main fusion process results in four hydrogen nuclei, which simply consist of a single proton, combining to form a helium nucleus, which has two protons and two neutrons. The heavier hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, with one and two neutrons, respectively, are created in intermediate stages. It’s impractical to try and replicate the entire process from ordinary hydrogen, but fusion of deuterium and tritium is possible. An early test involved the use of these gases in liquefied form, but a crucial modification was the use of solid lithium deuteride, a compound of lithium and deuterium. Under the conditions created by the initial fission explosion, lithium transforms into tritium, which then fuses with deuterium.
History
The first time the principle of a hydrogen bomb was tested was on May 9, 1951 by the US military, during the Operation Greenhouse “George” test at the Pacific Proving Grounds. Most of the energy yield from this test came from fission fuel, but it showed that a fission bomb could be used as a stepping stone to something even more destructive. A similar test, “Item”, took place on May 25, 1951.
The very first test of the hydrogen bomb, “Ivy Mike”, was on November 1, 1952, detonated at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific, as part of Operation Ivy. The bomb exploded with a force equivalent to 10.4 megatons (million tons) of TNT, over 450 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki during World War II. Using liquid deuterium as fuel, this hydrogen bomb required 18 tons of refrigeration equipment. It was not a practical weapon, but it proved that a fusion bomb of enormous power could be made.
A later test, “Castle Bravo,” used solid lithium deuteride instead, reducing the device’s weight, eliminating the need for refrigeration, and making it a weapon that could be carried by aircraft or attached to a missile. The Castle Bravo test, with a yield of 15 megatons, is the most powerful nuclear weapon tested by the United States, but not the most powerful overall. That distinction belongs to the device known as the “Great Ivan” detonated by the Soviet Union 13,000 feet (4,000 m) above a test range on Novaya Zemlya Island on October 30, 1961. The 50-megaton explosion resulted in a area of complete destruction with a distance of 15.5 miles (25 km) from Ground Zero and broken glass 559 miles (900 km) away. Witnesses described a huge ball of fire hitting the ground and reaching a height of nearly 34,000 feet (10,363m); a mushroom cloud that reached 210,000 feet (64,008 m); and a flash that was visible 621 miles (1,000 km) away.
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