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A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lower mass, or a combination of these benefits.
The United States was the first nation to develop the hydrogen bomb, testing an experimental prototype in 1952 ("Ivy Mike") and a deployable weapon in 1954 ("Castle Bravo"). Throughout the Cold War it continued to modernize and enlarge its nuclear arsenal, but from 1992 on has been involved primarily in a program of stockpile stewardship.
After Truman ordered the crash program to develop the hydrogen bomb in January 1950, the Boston Daily Globe published a cutaway description of a hypothetical hydrogen bomb with the caption Artist's conception of how H-bomb might work using atomic bomb as a mere "trigger" to generate enough heat to set up the H-bomb's "thermonuclear fusion" process.
The basics of the Teller–Ulam design for a hydrogen bomb: a fission bomb uses radiation to compress and heat a separate section of fusion fuel. The other basic type of nuclear weapon produces a large proportion of its energy in nuclear fusion reactions.
The Tsar Bomba (Russian: Царь-бомба, romanized: Tsar'-bomba, IPA: [t͡sarʲ ˈbombə], lit. ' Tsar bomb '; code name: Ivan [5] or Vanya), also known by the alphanumerical designation "AN602", was a thermonuclear aerial bomb, and the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested.
The hydrogen bomb, which carried the force of 50 million tons of conventional explosives, was detonated in a test in October 1961, 4,000 meters over the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago above the ...
North Korea's claim of a successful H-bomb test marks a big step in its long-stated goal of developing a nuclear missile that puts the U.S. within range. Possible two-stage hydrogen bomb seen ...
The bomb was a three-stage device with a boosted U-235 primary and U-238 pusher. The yield was 3.3 megatons. The film of the prior 1966 tests have been released, as well as an unidentified later test. [3] It was a fully functional, full-scale, three-stage hydrogen bomb, tested just 32 months after China had made its first fission device. It ...