The Hydrogen Bomb

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The hydrogen bomb, a thermonuclear weapon is an explosive device that creates its explosion by fusing two atoms together, to create a reaction similar to the processes that happens on the sun. The concept was first developed in 1952, during the cold war, and the bombs continually grew in destructive potential until the Tzar bomb, a 50 megaton bomb, that was detonated by the Soviets in 1961. The hydrogen bombs were unique to atomic bombs, because unlike the atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs had no conceivable limit to their size. This in turn made it possible for scientists to build as big as they wanted.

The hydrogen bomb was a definite step up from the kiloton range of the atomic bombs. “In this type of bomb, deuterium and tritium (hydrogen isotopes) are fused into helium, thereby releasing energy. There is no limit on the yield of this weapon”(Cold War: A Brief History, 2011,p. 4). The hydrogen bomb is based off the concept of what happen in our sun on a daily basis. On the sun, nuclear reactions happen, converting hydrogen into helium, causing the immense energy that the sun produces. Scientist knew they were able to harness the ability to split an atom to produce energy, and one scientist, Edward Teller, made everyone believe that they could fuse two atom when the first US thermonuclear bomb was detonated. Edward teller was a lead scientist in the conception of the hydrogen bomb, who had studied under Niels Bohr and the famous, Robert Oppenheimer.

The hydrogen bomb was a two stage bomb, or in the case of the Tzar bomb, a three stage. The first stage, or primary was a fission bomb, which was just the trigger of the larger blast created by the fuel in the second stage. The second stage fuel is compressed by the prim...

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... be sent to a target from a distance, and during the Cuban Missile Crisis, those missiles nearly brought us to WWIII.

Works Cited

Atomicarchives.com (2011). “Race for the Hydrogen Bomb”. Retrieved March 17, 2014 from http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/hbomb

Atomicarchives.com (2011). “Cold War: A Brief History”. Retrieved March 17, 2014 from http://www.atomicarchive.com/History/coldwar

AtomCentral.com (2014) “The Cold War” Retrieved March 17, 2014 from http://www.atomcentral.com/the-cold-war.aspx

Fuller, John (24 January 2008). "How the Nuclear Arms Race Works" Retrieved March 18, 2014 from http://science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-arms-race.htm

United States drops hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll. (2014). The History Channel website. Retrieved March 18, 2014 from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/united-states-drops-hydrogen-bomb-over-bikini-atoll.

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