Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by khuey on Sunday August 14, 2022 @04:53PM
(#32462842)
All nuclear bombs involve fission. Some (termed "thermonuclear") involve fusion. A fission first stage is detonated to ignite a (much higher yielding) fusion second stage. Most bombs deployed today are thermonuclear simply because it's the most sensible way to scale up the yield of a weapon.
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by benreesman on Sunday August 14, 2022 @09:24PM
(#32464861)
Nitpick, AFAIK (which is t far) the real crust-busters (e.g. Tsar Bomba) use yet a third stage of fissile material that gets rapidly burnt up at truly absurd neutron densities to get that last 40-90 Mt and as a result are dirty as all hell. The Soviets turned that weapon down from 100Mt designed yield to 50 because there was no way to keep it from just radiating everything.
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by jcims on Sunday August 14, 2022 @07:37PM
(#32464207)
Isn’t the fissile material the only reason there is residual radiation/fallout from fusion devices?
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by mlindner on Sunday August 14, 2022 @09:09PM
(#32464751)
A lot of materials are fissile in the presence of a fusion reaction.
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by throwoutway on Sunday August 14, 2022 @05:23PM
(#32463064)
This makes sense, thank you
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by wiml on Sunday August 14, 2022 @05:39PM
(#32463213)
Usually if it's called an "atom bomb" or "A-bomb" it's pure fission, and a nuclear bomb, thermonuclear bomb, or hydrogen bomb is fission-fusion-fission. A fission bomb compresses the hydrogen to cause it to fuse, and the extra energy and neutrons from the hydrogen fusion cause a whole lot of additional fission in the uranium tamper. For details look up the "Teller-Ulam" design, wikipedia has some good descriptions.
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by smueller1234 on Sunday August 14, 2022 @04:56PM
(#32462862)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermonuclear_weapon
The "hydrogen" in "hydrogen bomb" relates to fusion. In a nutshell, these types of devices use a fission bomb to create the environment (pressure/temperature) that causes lighter atoms to undergo fusion, which significantly boosts the explosive yield compared to a pure fission bomb.
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by orlp on Sunday August 14, 2022 @04:51PM
(#32462831)
I'm curious what you think the hydrogen in a hydrogen bomb would split into.
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by sweetheart on Sunday August 14, 2022 @04:54PM
(#32462852)
Sheesh, tough crowd.
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by cnasc on Sunday August 14, 2022 @04:52PM
(#32462833)
We actually got to fusion bombs pretty quickly, in the 1950s. Presumably almost all practical nuclear weapons since then are fission bombs
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by dboreham on Sunday August 14, 2022 @07:44PM
(#32464255)
They're two stage: fission primary and fusion secondary.
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by pfdietz on Sunday August 14, 2022 @11:33PM
(#32465563)
Three stage: the fusion secondary typically uses a uranium pusher, which undergoes fission from the fusion neutrons.
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by panick21_ on Monday August 15, 2022 @09:43AM
(#32469584)
In theory you could do a fusion bomb as a stage, that would make be insane. At least if I understand that correctly.
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by spaetzleesser on Sunday August 14, 2022 @11:44PM
(#32465655)
I thought the fusion produces a lot of neutrons that then cause a ton of more fission.
Re:Three papers highlight results of record yield nuclear fu...
by anonymousDan on Sunday August 14, 2022 @04:55PM
(#32462854)
Nope, the most powerful bombs use both - in effect they use fission to perform fusion. Obviously the problem with this for energy production is that it is not a very controlled reaction.
I didn’t even know fusion had a weapons research program