![]() Once the required mass is obtained, it must be kept in two or more pieces until the moment of detonation. This enrichment is an exceptionally difficult task, a fact that has helped control the proliferation of nuclear weapons. First you must obtain enough uranium which is highly enriched to over 90% U-235, whereas natural uranium is only 0.7% U-235. That is not to say that this is an easy task to accomplish. Using the energy release from the nuclear fission of uranium-235, an explosive device can be made by simply positioning two masses of U-235 so that they can be forced together quickly enough to form a critical mass and a rapid, uncontrolled fission chain reaction. Analysis of the radioactive fallout from this bomb revealed it to be a fission-fusion-fission weapon, a "hydrogen bomb" with an outer sheath of natural uranium to increase the yield. It had a fireball 4.8 km in diameter and created a huge characteristic mushroom-shaped cloud. exploded a 15 megaton fusion bomb on March 1, 1954. The Soviet Union detonated a fusion bomb in the megaton range in August of 1953. The first hydrogen bomb was detonated on Novemat the small island Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. Then the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction could take place.īecause the thermonuclear explosive devices used hydrogen isotopes, ( deuterium-tritium fusion), the resulting bombs were often called "hydrogen bombs". In the process, the lithium was bombarded with neutrons, breeding tritium. The only way which was found to produce the ignition temperature was to set off a fission bomb such that it would heat and compress the lithium hydride. To obtain the two parts of the fuel, pellets were made from lithium hydride, LiD, made with the deuterium isotope. This led to the term "hydrogen bomb" to describe the deuterium-tritium fusion bomb. This is typically done with the isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium. A thermonuclear explosion can be created only by producing the required temperature, about a hundred-million Kelvins, and by forcing the material together so quickly that it will fuse rapidly. It was a major contribution to the development of the hydrogen bomb in the Soviet Union.Because of the high temperatures required to initiate a nuclear fusion reaction, such devices are often called thermonuclear devices. This method used alternating layers of deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen) and uranium. For example, Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, a member of the Soviet nuclear weapons program, came up with a design called "sloika" (layer cake). Specifications of various hydrogen bombs vary. On the other hand, hydrogen bombs use not only the energy from fission but also secondary fusion, which makes the explosion much stronger. Atomic bombs rely on fission - a process of compressing the core of uranium or plutonium, splitting it into parts, and therefore releasing a huge amount of energy. The reaction that causes the explosion is also different. While atomic bombs use either uranium or plutonium in most cases, hydrogen bombs also need additional isotopes of hydrogen, called deuterium and tritium. The Tsar Bomba was a hydrogen aerial bomb, also known as a thermonuclear weapon, which is usually described as a more advanced and powerful version of an atomic bomb. ![]() Who Was Who In Creating The 'Tsar Bomba'? Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was keen to show off the U.S.S.R.'s military prowess, so he ordered the creation of the most powerful bomb ever made. ![]() The Soviet Union was also working on developing a hydrogen bomb and managed to detonate its first true one in 1955. The United States had already tested the world's first hydrogen bomb - called "Mike" - in 1952 and their biggest nuclear device - called "Castle Bravo" - in 1954. The Military Race Is OnĪt the beginning of the 1960s, the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States was tense - the countries were in the middle of the Cold War, struggling for geopolitical, ideological, and military dominance. While its original purpose was to prove to the world, and especially to the United States, that the Soviet Union was capable of producing such devices, it also brought a surprising twist to the future testing of nukes. The "Tsar Bomba," as it became known, was 10 times more powerful than all the munitions used during World War II. On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union tested the largest nuclear device ever created.
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