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Log–log plot comparing the yield (in kilotonnes) and mass (in kilograms) of various nuclear weapons developed by the United States.. The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy released such as blast, thermal, and nuclear radiation, when that particular nuclear weapon is detonated, usually expressed as a TNT equivalent (the standardized equivalent mass of trinitrotoluene ...
Weapons variable yield and weight have been plotted at their highest yield and weight. Also indicated on the graph are a few characteristics of the weapons (Little Boy and Fat Man, the early H-bombs, small tactical weapons, and weapons in the enduring stockpile separated by missile warheads and air-dropped bombs).
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion.The ton of TNT is a unit of energy defined by convention to be 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie), [1] which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a metric ton (1,000 kilograms) of TNT.
The Bethe–Feynman efficiency formula, a simple method for calculating the yield of a fission bomb, [1] was first derived in 1943 after development in 1942. Aspects of the formula are speculated to be secret restricted data .
Examples of variable yield weapons include the B61 nuclear bomb family, B83, B43, W80, W85, and WE177A warheads. Most modern nuclear weapons are Teller–Ulam design type thermonuclear weapons, with a fission primary stage and a fusion secondary stage that is collapsed by the energy from the primary. These offer at least three methods to vary ...
A nuclear weapon [a] is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter.
The yield varies for a tactical nuclear weapon from a fraction of a kiloton to approximately 50 kilotons. [7] In comparison, a strategic nuclear weapon has a yield from 100 kilotons to over a megaton, with much larger warheads available. [7]
Nuclear fission splits a heavy nucleus such as uranium or plutonium into two lighter nuclei, which are called fission products. Yield refers to the fraction of a fission product produced per fission. Yield can be broken down by: Individual isotope; Chemical element spanning several isotopes of different mass number but same atomic number.