Thermonuclear explosions

There are however examples to the contrary when thermonuclear reactions take place in an explosive manner, e.g. when a whole white dwarf (resulting from an evolved intermediate mass star) undergoes merger with another and explodes, as nuclear fuel (carbon) is ignited under degenerate conditions, such as in a type la supernova explosive thermonuclear reactions also take place in post-bounce core... 

Physical explosions (electrical discharges, steam explosion, volcanic explosion, meteor hitting Earth, and others) and nuclear explosions (thermonuclear reactions on the Sun s surface) have always been present in the universe. According to some theories, explosions took part in the creation of the galaxies and Earth and also contribute to large and small scale qualitative changes that occurred on Earth s surface. 

Albert Einstein) Einsteinium, the seventh transuranic element of the actinide series to be discovered, was identified by Ghiorso and co-workers at Berkeley in December 1952 in debris from the first large thermonuclear explosion, which took place in the Pacific in November, 1952. The 20-day 253Es isotope was produced. 

It is possible to prepare very heavy elements in thermonuclear explosions, owing to the very intense, although brief (order of a microsecond), neutron flux furnished by the explosion (3,13). Einsteinium and fermium were first produced in this way they were discovered in the fallout materials from the first thermonuclear explosion (the "Mike" shot) staged in the Pacific in November 1952. It is possible that elements having atomic numbers greater than 100 would have been found had the debris been examined very soon after the explosion. The preparative process involved is multiple neutron capture in the uranium in the device, which is followed by a sequence of beta decays. Eor example, the synthesis of EM in the Mike explosion was via the production of from followed by a long chain of short-Hved beta decays,... 

Available only in very small amounts from neutron irradiations ia thermonuclear explosions. 

Impacts and Explosives. The coUision of high velocity bullets or other projectiles with soHds causes rapid conversion of kinetic to thermal energy. Plasmas result iacidentaHy, whereas the primary effects of impact are shock and mechanical effects in the target. Impact-produced plasmas are hot enough to cause thermonuclear bum (180). 

Most modem projectiles and virtually all missiles contain explosives. The plasmas that result from explosives are intrinsic to operation of warheads, bombs, mines, and related devices. Nuclear weapons and plasmas are intimately related. Plasmas are an inevitable result of the detonation of fission and fusion devices and are fundamental to the operation of fusion devices. Compressed pellets, in which a thermonuclear reaction occurs, would be useful militarily for simulation of the effects of nuclear weapons on materials and devices. 

Fermium - the atomic number is 100 and the chemical symbol is Fm. The name derives from the Italian bom physicist Enrico Fermi , who built the first man made nuclear reactor. The nuchde Fm was found in the debris of a thermonuclear weapon s explosion in 1952 by a collaboration of American scientists from the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, Illinois, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico and the University of California lab at Berkeley, California. The longest half-life associated with this unstable element is 100 day... 

Some compounds, such as strontium chromate and strontium fluoride, are carcinogens and toxic if ingested. Strontium-90 is particularly dangerous because it is a radioactive bone-seeker that replaces the calcium in bone tissue. Radiation poisoning and death may occur in people exposed to excessive doses of Sr-90. Strontium-90, as well as some other radioisotopes that are produced by explosions of nuclear weapons and then transported atmospherically, may be inhaled by plants and animals many miles from the source of the detonation. This and other factors led to the ban on atmospheric testing of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons. 

Atoll in the Marshall Islands, located in the West Central Pacific Ocean. Although the atoll was obliterated, literally wiped off the face of the Earth, several heavy elements, both known and unknown at that time, were detected in the aftermath of the explosion by a team of scientists led by Albert Ghiorso of the Berkeley laboratory. Einsteinium was one of these trace elements that was detected. Its existence, as well as several other discovered elements, was not announced until 1955, due to secrecy related to this new type of thermonuclear bomb. The melting and boiling points as well as the density of einsteinium are not known because of the extremely small amounts that have been produced. 

Einsteinium does not exist in nature and is not found in the Earth s crust. It is produced in small amounts by artificial nuclear transmutations of other radioactive elements rather than by additional explosions of thermonuclear weapons. The formation of einsteinium from decay processes of other radioactive elements starts with plutonium and proceeds in five steps as follows ... 

In 1960 Fred Hoyle and William Fowler discovered that thermonuclear combustion in the dense core of a degenerate star (the word degenerate is used in the sense of quantum theory and will be made exphcit later) could trigger the explosion and volatilisation of the star. If we add the idea that post mortem light emissions are fuelled by the gradual disintegration of an unstable radioactive isotope, nickel-56, a subject to be discussed in great detail later, we obtain the universal explanation of what are now known as type la supernovas. 

However, the entombment of iron is only perpetrated by gravitational-collapse supernovas. Their thermonuclear counterparts are more liberal and, one might say, more final, for they leave behind no corpse, no bones, and no scrap iron. They owe this propensity for total destraction to the rigidity and fragility of the exploding body, the white dwarf, a porcelain ornament that is sure to break when it falls. But thermonuclear supernovas, though lavish providers of iron, are rare. Very special conditions must be fulfilled for these explosions to occur. 

This, in turn is produced by successive slow neutron irradiation of curium-244 Californium-254 may be produced by thermonuclear explosion resulting in the reaction of uranium-238 with intense neutron flux followed by a sequence of p- decays (Cunningham, B. B. 1968. In Encyclopedia of Chemical Elements, ed. Clifford A. Hampel, New York Reinhold Book Co.)... 

The heavier isotopes of the element may result from rapid neutron capture process caused by intense neutron fluxes from thermonuclear explosions, followed by a series of p decay (Cunningham, B.D. 1968. Curium. In Encyclopedia of Chemical Elements, ed. C. A. Hampel, pp. 173-177. New York Reinhold Book Corp.)... 

The first isotope of this element having mass number 253 and half-life 20 days was detected in 1952 in the Pacific in debris from the first thermonuclear explosion. The isotope was an alpha emitter of 6.6 MeV energy, chemically analogous to the rare earth element holmium. Isotope 246, having a half-life 7.3 minutes, was synthesized in the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory cyclotron in 1954. The element was named Einsteinium in honor of Albert Einstein. Only microgram amounts have been synthesized. The element has high specific alpha activities. It may be used as a tracer in chemical studies. Commercial applications are few. 

Heavier isotopes Es-253, Es-254 and Es-255 can be produced in a nuclear reactor by multiple neutron capture reactions that may occur when uranium, neptunium and plutonium isotopes are irradiated under intense neutron flux. These and other isotopes also are produced during thermonuclear explosions. 

Fermium was formally discovered in 1954 at the Nobel Institute for Physics in Stockholm. It was synthesized in 1952 in the Material Testing Reactor in Idaho, but the discovery was not announced. The new element was named in honor of Enrico Fermi. There is no commercial application of this element because its yield is in extremely minute quantities. It has been detected in debris from thermonuclear explosion. 

Explosion has several attributes and hence can be described ot defined in different ways- From the standpoint of chemistry it is a rapid cheuircai process resulting in the evolution of gas and heat. To the classic physical definition of a high-pressure energy release must be added thermonuclear effects. Both chemical and physical concepts must be combined to obtain a complete terminology Ref H. Pessiak, Explosivstoffe, 1960, 23—6, 45-7... 

Astronomers use a variety of methods to determine the distance to objects in the universe. One of the most effective is the standard candle provided by Type la supemovae. These supemovae originate in a binary star system when a white dwarf star accretes matter from its companion. When the white dwarf reaches the Chandrasekhar limit of 1.4 solar masses, a thermonuclear runaway occurs that completely disrupts the star in a cataclysmic explosion that makes the supernova as bright as an entire galaxy. Because Type la supemovae occur in stars with similar masses and because the nuclear burning affects the entire star, they all have essentially the same intrinsic brightness and their apparent brightness observed from Earth can be used to derive the distance to the supernova. 

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