Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by TeeMassive on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @03:26PM
(#33975227)
H-bombs use the hydrogen to produce more neutrons which boosts the fission process. It still is a fission bomb.
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Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by yk on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @05:48PM
(#33977329)
No, you can have a fusion booster, like in the "Sloika" [0] design, but for a Teller-Ulam design, that is a H-bomb, you use a nuclear primer to ignite a fusion reaction and by far the most energy comes from the fusion part. [1]
[0] https://www.atomicarchive.com/history/hydrogen-bomb/page-11....
Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by zbobet2012 on Wednesday December 14, 2022 @01:40AM
(#33980722)
You are correct that in a Teller-Ulam design most of the energy can come from fusion, but as a note it's generally a fission-fusion-fission design in "modern" deployments with about 50% of the energy coming from fusion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermonuclear_weapon
Only very large bombs, such as the Tsar Bomba (97% from fusion) ever where primarily fusion, and those are not in modern arsenals.
Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by TeeMassive on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @11:46PM
(#33980097)
Half of the energy comes from the fissile "spark plug" that's inside the fusion material. Less than half of the energy comes from fusion.
It still very much is a fission weapon.
Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by Analog24 on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @04:58PM
(#33976544)
You have it backwards. The fission component is just the "trigger" for the fusion element, which produces the vast majority of the energy release.
Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by TeeMassive on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @11:46PM
(#33980102)
Half of the energy comes from the fissile "spark plug" that's inside the fusion material. Less than half of the energy comes from fusion.
It still very much is a fission weapon.
Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by davedx on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @04:07PM
(#33975794)
Nope...
"thermonuclear bomb, also called hydrogen bomb, or H-bomb, weapon whose enormous explosive power results from an uncontrolled self-sustaining chain reaction in which isotopes of hydrogen combine under extremely high temperatures to form helium in a process known as nuclear fusion."
Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by jboy55 on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @07:14PM
(#33978222)
Yes, but if you get into the details... The second stage of a bomb is the fusion in which a cylinder of hydrogen and/or lithium is encased by U-238. The primary stage, a trinity-like a-bomb, forces the cylinder to compress by its x-rays. The fusion reaction creates a bunch of energy, but more importantly a huge amount of neutrons. These neutrons cause the u-238 to undergo fission, which is responsible for a majority of the energy and pretty much all of the fallout.
Re:US Department of Energy: Fusion Ignition Achieved
by TeeMassive on Tuesday December 13, 2022 @11:50PM
(#33980128)
The fissile "spark plug" inside the fusion material is responsible for the majority of the energy...