Thermonuclear explosive device testing

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. 

The partitioning of radioactive debris in the troposphere and stratospheric regions is determined by the total explosive yield and the height and latitude of the burst. The total yield is the sum of the fission and fusion yields of the device. The production of important fallout radionuclides is determined by the fission yield of the weapon. Smaller yield nuclear explosions are produced by fission reactions, while larger yield explosions result from boosted fission or thermonuclear fusion reactions. Of the total yield of all atmospheric tests of440 Mt, an estimated 182 Mt, or about 40% of the total, was fission yield and the remainder was fusion yield. The contributions of countries conducting atmospheric tests to the total fission yield is shown in Table 10.3. 

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. 

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