The difference between an nuclear bomb and a hydrogen bomb.
In: Engineering
There are two basic ways that you can generate energy using nuclear reactions. And bombs are basically explosions of energy.
You can trigger a big atom to split into 2 smaller atoms: this is called fission, and it is the easier way.
For this method, you use elements that have fairly big atoms (as far as atoms go: they are still very tiny).
That usually means Uranium or Plutonium. For bombs, it always means Uranium or Plutonium.
You can also smash two smaller atoms together so that the form one bigger atom: this is called fusion, and it is much harder.
For this method you use small atoms. In fact, it generally means smashing hydrogen atoms (the smallest atoms) together to make helium atoms (the second smallest atoms). The only real exceptions to that is the fusion that happens in stars.
Fusion is harder both because it takes more starting energy to make it work, and because it’s harder to get everything to go just right once you have the energy available.
But if you can do it, it makes a LOT more energy – which for a bomb, means a bigger boom.
A “normal” nuclear bomb generally refers to a fission bomb.
A hydrogen bomb is a fusion bomb that gets enough energy to make fusion happen by having a fission (normal) bomb go off to make the energy needed.
There is not currently, to my understanding, any design for a fusion bomb that works without having a fission bomb go off to get it enough energy to go. If some country were to figure out how to build one, it would be called a “pure fusion weapon.” It’s not likely anyone will figure this out soon. We do know ways to make fusion happen other than using fission first, but none of them will really work for a bomb.
There are also things called “hydrogen-enriched bombs” or “boosted fission bombs.” For, these, you add some hydrogen that does undergo fusion, but that fusion only provides a tiny amount of energy to the explosion compared to the fission explosion. Instead, the smaller amount of fusion that happens primarily contributes by making the fusion explosion more efficient.
These are easier hydrogen bomb, but not quite as easy as a normal fission bomb.
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