19 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
19 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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tags:
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- Concept
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- Nuclear Weapon
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- Physics
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category: "Nuclear Concept"
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summary: "A hydrogen bomb is a thermonuclear weapon deriving its explosive force from nuclear fusion reactions triggered by a fission primary, making it orders of magnitude more powerful than a fission bomb alone."
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start: 1952
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location: Eniwetok Atoll
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---
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A hydrogen bomb, also known as a fusion device, is a nuclear weapon that derives its explosive energy from nuclear fusion reactions. It is far more powerful than a fission weapon. The development of the hydrogen bomb, code-named "Super," involved solving two central problems: how to ignite the fusion material and how to make it burn efficiently. Scientists at [[Los Alamos]] developed a two-stage device, where a fission bomb is triggered (the first stage) inside the warhead, and the radiation from this fission device then compresses and ignites a special thermonuclear fuel (the second stage). Deuterium or lithium deuteride can be used as the thermonuclear fuel.[^1]
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The first successful test of a thermonuclear device took place in 1952 at Eniwetok, an atoll in the western Pacific, producing a crater over a mile in diameter and 164 feet deep. This device was 650 times as powerful as the primitive device dropped at [[Hiroshima]]. The [[Soviet Union]] successfully tested its first two-stage hydrogen bomb in 1955, and in 1961, detonated the largest known hydrogen bomb with an explosive force of fifty-eight megatons.[^1]
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In 1980, according to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], [[Mordechai Tsippori]], director general of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, gave the go-ahead for [[Israel]] to develop a hydrogen bomb for testing.[^2]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 4.
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[^2]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.
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