What is the difference between nuclear and thermonuclear weapon?
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Terminology varies, and since a lot of it is classified there is an element of guesswork involved in exactly how these weapons work, but the general understanding is there are, simplifying slightly, two different kinds of nuclear bombs: fission (ie Uranium and Plutonium) bombs and fusion (ie hydrogen) bombs. A thermonuclear bomb is another term occasionally used for fusion/hydrogen bombs.
Fission is when unstable atoms split, releasing energy, which can cause an explosion if it happens in the form of a runaway chain reaction. Fusion is when stable atoms merge, which can either release energy or absorb energy depending upon if the new configuration is a higher or lower energy state than the old. Hydrogen bombs absorb huge amounts of energy (usually provided by an internal fission bomb) in order to convert hydrogen into helium which, because it is a lower energy state, releases massively more energy even than it absorbed, causing an enormous explosion.
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