An H-bomb is a three-stage weapon: fission, fusion, and then fission again. The first stage, called the “trigger” (the\u00a0black ball<\/a>\u00a0at the top), is a small\u00a0plutonium bomb<\/a>\u00a0similar to the one dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. The energy release at this stage is mainly due to\u00a0nuclear fission<\/a>\u00a0— because the atoms of plutonium are split.\u00a0Tritium<\/a>\u00a0is often added to the centre of the plutonium core to “boost” the fission explosion with some additional fusion energy. Boosted or not, however, the only importance of this first-stage explosion is to irradiate and heat the material in the central column to 100 million degrees celsius so that a much more powerful fusion reaction can be started there.<\/p>\n The second stage explosion is due to nuclear fusion in the central column. The main fusion reaction involves concentrated deuterium and tritium (both heavy isotopes of hydrogen) — which become spontaneously available when neutrons from the first stage explosion bombard a solid material called “lithium deuteride” located in the central column. When this hydrogen-rich mix is heated to 100 million degrees, the deuterium and tritium atoms “fuse” together, releasing enormous amounts of energy. This is the “H” or “thermonuclear” part of the bomb.<\/p>\n Then comes the third stage. The fusion reaction gives off an incredible burst of extremely powerful neutrons — so powerful that they can split or “fission” atoms of uranium-238 (called “depleted uranium<\/a>“) — which is impossible at lower energy levels. This third stage more than doubles the power of the explosion, and produces most of the radioactive fallout from the weapon.<\/p>\n Unlike fission bombs, which rely only on nuclear fission, and which can achieve explosions equivalent to thousands of tons of TNT (“kilotons”), the power of an H-bomb or thermonuclear weapon has no practical limit — it can be made as powerful as you want, by adding more deuterium\/tritium to the second stage. Most H-bombs are measured in “megatons” (equivalent to the explosive power of MILLIONS of tons of TNT — hundreds of times, or even a thousand times more powerful than a fission bomb).<\/p>\n [\u00a0Next Photo<\/a>\u00a0] How To Make an H-Bomb (or Thermonuclear bomb) [\u00a0pour la version fran\u00e7aise ] Howard Morland\u00a0wrote a magazine article explaining how an “H-Bomb” — or “thermonuclear bomb” — is made, using only publicly available information. In the photo, he is standing on the steps of the US Supreme Court holding a cut-away model of the H-bomb. …<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.ccnr.org\/gifs\/Howard_Morland_model.JPG\")
Howard Morland<\/a>\u00a0wrote a magazine article explaining how an “H-Bomb” — or “thermonuclear bomb” — is made, using only publicly available information. In the photo, he is standing on the steps of the US Supreme Court holding a cut-away model of the H-bomb.<\/b><\/p>\n
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\nAt Work In The Fields Of The Bomb\u00a0(Harper and Row, 1987)<\/strong><\/span><\/center><\/p>\n
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\n[Picture Gallery Subdirectory<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![plutonium bomb<\/a>\u00a0similar to the one dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. The energy release at this stage is mainly due to\u00a0](\"https:\/\/www.ccnr.org\/gifs\/Nagasaki_bomb.JPG\"){kind=link}