Hydrogen bomb destructiveness

A hydrogen bomb, which uses nuclear fusion for its destructive power, is three bombs in one. A conventional explosive charge triggers a fission bomb, which in turn triggers a fusion reaction. Such bombs can be considerably more powerful than fission bombs because they can incorporate larger masses of nuclear fuel. In a fission bomb, no component of fissionable material can exceed the critical mass. In fusion, there is no critical mass because fusion begins at a threshold temperature and is independent of the amount of nuclear fuel present. Thus, there is no theoretical limit on how much nuclear fiiel can be squeezed into a fusion bomb. 

The hydrogen bomb is another example of a discovery used for destructive rather than constructive purposes. The potential constructive possibility is the controlled release of vast amounts of clean energy. 

To understand this new development we must examine the mechanism of the so-called thermonuclear reaction of the hydrogen bomb which had already been successfully demonstrated by American scientists in 1952. Soon after the A-bomb, loaded with uranium-235 and plutonium, had been exploded for the first time in history in the summer of 1945, our scientists went to work on another type, the hydrogen or H-bomb. The principle of this weapon is somewhat different from that of the A-bomb. The destructive force of the H-bomb comes from the fusion of fighter atoms into a heavier one, rather than from the fission of a heavier element into lighter elements. 

The destructive power of nuclear weapons derives from the core of the atom, the nucleus. One type of nuclear weapon, the fission bomb, uses the energy released when nuclei of heavy elements such as plutonium fission (split apart). A second even more powerful type of nuclear weapon, the fusion or hydrogen bomb, uses the energy released when nuclei of hydrogen are united (fused together). 

Hydrogen bomb—An nuclear explosive weapon which uses hydrogen isotopes as fuel and an atom bomb as a detonator. More powerful than an atom bomb, the Hydrogen bomb derives its destructive power from energy released when nuclei of hydrogen are forced together to form helium nuclei in a process called nuclear fusion. Also called H-bomb or Thermonuclear bomb. 

Apparently, the US military establishment has pursued—and may still be pursuing—the production of metallic hydrogen. There could be no better way to pack hydrogen atoms into a hydrogen bomb than in its dense metal form, Hazen notes. Keenly aware of such vast potential for destruction, some scientists raced to produce metallic hydrogen with a new dark urgency. They were driven not so much by curiosity about the unknown as by fear that others might exploit the substance first. But many unanswered questions remain Once made, will the metal persist after pressure is... 

Is this a kind of world destruction by the atomic or hydrogen bomb One wonders. 

Tens of thousands of atomic and hydrogen bombs were built during and immediately after World War II, and 6,000 are now in existence, each having 20 times the destructive force of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. South Africa removed its nuclear weapons as part of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Pact (NPT). Today, forty nations throughout the world have the ability to produce nuclear weapons. The world barely escaped catastrophe in October 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis. There were 1,700 nuclear weapons in Cuba at that time. If the US. had invaded Cuba, it is too horrible to contemplate what might have been the consequences. 

In the 1950s the necessary energy could also be reached by exploding a fission bomb, and methods were devised for using a fission bomb to spark off a still greater and more destructive variety of nuclear bomb. The result was what is variously called a hydrogen bomb, an H-bomb, a thermonuclear device but, most properly, a fusion bomb. 

It is sometimes difficult even for other scientists to remember that the atomic and hydrogen bombs were developed not only as weapons of terrible destruction. They were also, as Fermi once said, superb physics. ... 

It is now believed that the energy of stars, including our sun, where extremely high temperatures exist, derives from nuclear fusion. The hydrogen bomb also employs nuclear fusion for its destructive power. High temperature is first attained by a fission bomb. This then ignites fusion reactions in surrounding material of deuterium and tritium. 

TNT has become such a standard, particularly in military uses, that the destructive power of other explosives, especially in bombs, is often compared to that of an equivalent of TNT. For example, the first atomic bomb—detonated on July 16, 1945, in New Mexico—had the equivalent power of 19,000 tons of TNT. The device exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, which killed more than 140,000 people, had the power of 13,000 tons of TNT. Although these numbers appear huge, comparison with the hydrogen bomb—with the destructive equivalent of 10 million tons of TNT—dwarfs... 

Atomic bomb. A weapon of mass destruction. The term is sometimes taken to mean a nuclear weapon utilizing fission energy only, but it is applicable to hydrogen fusion weapons as well. It is appropriate to call both atomic weapons because the energy released by atomic nuclei is involved in each case. The energy of an atomic explosion is released in a number of ways ... 

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