I’ve heard people say there is no fallout, but there typically is a fission bomb in the secondary stage. Where does its radiation go? Is it just blown away by the fusion bomb so it’s no longer as deadly? Isn’t it still there though? Is it just weaker?
In: Physics
i am not a nuclear physicist so my understanding may be wrong.
a hydrogen bomb is essentially a VERY short lived star stored in a bomb (which is kind of interesting if you ignore the horror of nuclear war) that reaction DOES produce radiation and some fallout but it’s actually a fairly efficient reaction. where most of the fallout in a a hydrogen bomb comes from is the detonator which is a fission bomb that is used to start the fusion reaction which is significantly less efficient.
if you just used the fission detonator as a bomb itself (ie an atomic bomb) you’ll produce a similar amount of fallout but over a smaller area (since the blast wave won’t physically disperse the material as much)
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