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#Largest fission bomb how to

The innermost portion contains a hollow plutonium pit filled with some form of hydrogen fuel - most likely Tritium in gaseous form. The device is typically spherical, with the outermost shell being made up of conventional explosives. In thermonuclear weapons, an implosion bomb achieves critical mass through the inward compression of fissionable material, such as plutonium. For this to occur, weapons-grade fissile material - either uranium or plutonium - must reach critical mass.

Stage 1: Nuclear Fission: Thermonuclear bombs rely on a primary process called nuclear fission, in which a conventional explosion triggers a chain reaction that splits the nuclei of large atoms, resulting in a nuclear explosion.

The result is an extremely powerful, and theoretically limitless, explosion. How it WorksĮxact designs of this type of weapon remain a state secret, but most experts believe that the bomb is set up in two stages: The primary stage, fission, triggers the secondary stage, fusion. The blast produced an equivalent of 10.4 million tons of TNT, or about 700 times more powerful than the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The bomb (code-named “Ivy Mike,”) was detonated on the island of Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Marshal Islands on November 1, 1952. Their breakthrough occurred a little over a year into their research, and in 1951 the Teller-Ulam design was approved for testing.

#Largest fission bomb how to

The largest theoretical hurdle for the two was figuring out how to trigger nuclear fusion before the shockwaves from the fission blast reached their secondary device.

Stanislaw Ulam, a mathematician working on the Manhattan Project, partnered with Teller to design the first hydrogen bomb. Truman ordered the development of the hydrogen bomb. Just six months later, newly elected President Harry S. That is, until August 1949, when the Soviet Union tested its own atomic bomb. He and others referred to this yet-to-be-discovered invention as the “ Super,” due to its unprecedented destructive potential.ĭebate about the possibility, and even the morality, of the Super caused many to shift their focus toward smaller fission devices. Edward Teller, a physicist studying nuclear fission, developed an interest in scaling up a nuclear explosion using hydrogen as fuel.

Originsĭevelopment of the hydrogen bomb dates to the 1940s during The Manhattan Project.

The combination of these two processes releases massive amounts of energy, hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than an atomic bomb. Thermonuclear weapons, sometimes referred to as Hydrogen, or “H-bombs,” utilize both atomic fission and nuclear fusion to create an explosion.