Wasn’t the H-bomb (fusion) supposed to be way more powerful and unpredictable than the A-bomb (fission)? Kinda confused here and I’m certainly mixing bombs with energy production. But if you could give me the essential I’d appreciate it. Thank you.
In: Chemistry
Fusion is very hard to make work. For bombs, you need a fission bomb to start the fusion bomb off. Fission bombs would be relatively clean (free of radioactive fallout) if it weren’t for the fission trigger. There were early hopes for being able to trigger a fission bomb without a fusion trigger but chemical explosives just aren’t violent enough. If it could be done, the old plans for using nuclear explosions to dig canals and launch spacecraft would be more tenable.
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