Thermonuclear device

Tritium (3H) and cesium (137Cs) are common isotopes used for age dating of groundwater. The rationale behind the use of these two isotopes is the assumption that above background levels are the result of their introduction from the atmospheric testing of thermonuclear devices from about 1953 to 1954. Since 1953 to 1954, tritium and cesium levels increased to about 1963, then declined with secondary increases or peaks around 1973 and 1975 reflecting testing done by China and France. 

Several novel heat sources and chemistries have also been explored for hydrogen from organic biomass. Safrany (1971) has proposed the use of a thermonuclear device to vaporize waste organic materials in an underground, large-scale plasma process. In the 1980s, two novel processes for hydrogen from carbonaceous materials were presented (Milne et al., 2002). 

Safrany, D.R. 1971. A potential large scale plasma process synthesis of inexpensive hydrogen by using a thermonuclear device to vaporize waste organic materials. Chem Eng Progress Symp Ser 67 103-108. 

With the advent of nuclear weapons, particularly thermonuclear devices (hydrogen bombs), additional 14C was added to the atmosphere. This 14C, which we shall refer to as excess 14C, was produced by neutrons which escaped from the fireball interacting with nitrogen atoms of the atmosphere in the same manner as the neutrons from cosmic rays. Since the bulk of this 14C was probably produced by a few very high energy devices exploded high in the atmosphere, most of the excess 14C was likewise deposited in the stratosphere. 

The conceptual outline of a thermonuclear device is given in Fig. 8.8. This is a notional device and should in no way be interpreted as a blueprint of a nuclear weapon. The information provided here is based on the published literature only, for example Robinson (1983), De Geer (1991), Rhodes (1995), Cote (1995) and USDOE (1996). 

Over the next eight years, 34 such devices were exploded in the atmosphere (31 at Mururoa and three at Fangataufa). A further three tests were explosions of devices dropped from aircraft. In all cases the detonation altitude was sufficient for the fireball not to reach sea level thereby minimising the production of local fallout. The largest test was of a 2600 kt thermonuclear device detonated 520 m above Fangataufa lagoon in August 1968. In the last atmospheric test, on 14 September 1974, a 300 kt device was exploded 433 m above Mururoa. 

The lithium is in the form of an alloy with magnesium or aluminium which retains much of the tritium until it is released by treatment with acid. Alternatively the tritium can be produced by neutron irradiation of enriched LiF at 450° in a vacuum and then recovered from the gaseous products by diffusion through a palladium barrier. As a result of the massive production of tritium for thermonuclear devices and research into energy production by fusion reactions, tritium is available cheaply on the megacurie scale for peaceful purposes. The most convenient way of storing the gas is to react it with finely divided uranium... 

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. 

Ulam. Stanislaw. 1966. Thermonuclear devices. In R. E. Marshak, ed.. Perspectives in Modern Physics. Interscience. 

In the final design for the Super the heat to initiate the fusion reaction is provided by a fission reaction, and once ignited, the reaction spreads like a normal thermochemical reaction (such as combustion), hence thermonuclear. The first test of a thermonuclear device, code-named Mike, was in 1952, and it completely leveled the small atoll in the Marshall Islands on which it was detonated. This weapon may have fulfilled the prediction of Alfred Nobel Perhaps my factories will end war sooner than your peace conferences. - War in the 1950s became Cold and Limited. There was another bit of fallout from the Mike test, chemical instead of political Sifting through debris from the Mike explosion, scientists found elements number 99 and 100 einsteinium and fermium. 

And even now I must remind myself that this was the work of bombs that were small by comparison with the thermonuclear devices developed later. 

Very heavy elements have been detected under circumstances where very intense neutron fluxes were produced. Such is the case for a few microseconds after a thermonuclear explosion. Isotopes of einsteinium and fermium were first discovered in the debris of the first thermonuclear explosion detonated at Eniwetok Atoll in November 1952 [2,5]. It is possible that elements of atomic number greater than 100 might have been detected had the debris been examined immediately after the explosion. The route whereby elements of high atomic number are formed in the detonation of a thermonuclear device is again multiple neutron capture in which is a component of the device. Thus, the synthesis... 

Atomic bomb effect Recent major increase in activity caused by the production of artiflcial (bomb due to the detonation of thermonuclear devices in the atmosphere. Also known as the Libby or Nuclear Effect. 

GEORGE. The United States conducted the world s first successful detonation of a thermonuclear device when a device code-named... 

On 12 August 1953, the Soviets successfully detonated their first thermonuclear device. Its estimated yield was 400 kilotons. The U.S. government dubbed this device Joe 4, in line with designations used for prior Soviet nuclear devices. See also ALARM CLOCK RUSSIA SAKHAROV, ANDREI DMITRIYEVICH. 

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