The+Hydrogen+Bomb+-+Logue

The Hydrogen Bomb

The Mike H-bomb Test extremely high temperatures are required in order to start fusion reactions, the hydrogen bomb is also known as a thermonuclear bomb. 1st h-bomb test on 1952 at Eniwetok the second in 1953 by Russia The presumable structure of the h-bomb is: at its center is an atomic bomb; surrounded by a layer of lithium deuteride; around it is a thick outer layer, usually made of fissionable material, which holds the contents together in order to get a bigger explosion. Neutron from the atomic explosion causes the lithium to fission into helium, tritium, and energy. The atomic explosion also supplies the temperatures needed for fusion of deuterium with tritium, and of tritium with tritium. Enough neutrons are made in the fusion reactions to make further fission in the core and to start fission in the tamper (thick outer layer). The fusion reaction makes mostly neutrons and very little that is radioactive, the concept of a “clean” bomb is one having a small atomic trigger, a less fissionable tamper, and therefore less radioactive fallout. Carrying this process further would result in the neutron bomb**.** Which would have a small trigger and a non fissionable tamper; there would be blast effects and a hail of lethal neutrons but almost no fallout; this theoretically would cause the least physical damage to buildings and equipment but kill most living things. The cobalt bomb is a radioactively “dirty” bomb having a cobalt tamper. Instead of generating more explosive force from fission of the uranium, the cobalt is transmuted into cobalt-60, which has a half-life of 5.26 years and produces energetic gamma rays. The half-life of Co-60 is just long enough so that airborne particles will settle and coat the earth's surface before a lot of decay has occurred, making it useless to hide in shelters. Physicist Leo Szilard to calls it a “doomsday device” since it was capable of wiping out life on earth. Because of the high temperature, nearly all of the stuff around it is vaporized to form a gas. A sudden overpressure, a pressure more of atmospheric pressure, propagates away from the center of the explosion as a shock wave, decreasing in strength as it travels. It is this wave, containing most of the energy released that is responsible for the major part of the destructive mechanical effects of a nuclear explosion. The details of shock wave propagation and its effects vary depending on whether the burst is in the air, underwater, or underground.