What stops a nuclear bomb’s chain reaction?
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We call that “chain reaction” fission. It is actually much like any other bomb. It either burns through every radioactive atom it can or the force and heat generated by the explosion push the atoms too far away to sustain the runaway fission. In fact, it is estimated that only 1kg of the 64kg of radioactive material in the Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima actually underwent fission.
That’s right. Only about 1.5% of the enriched uranium was actually consumed by the reaction that made a 15 kiloton explosion that immediately killed approximately 66,000 individuals. Newer hydrogen fusion bombs are even more efficient.
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