4 ms·
Well, GP didn't mean this, but most thermonuclear bombs derive a large amount of their yield from fission of a U238 "tamper" and "sparkplug", driving by neutron
by msds 8y ago
Well, GP didn't mean this, but most thermonuclear bombs derive a large amount of their yield from fission of a U238 "tamper" and "sparkplug", driving by neutrons from D-T fusion.
- blackflame7000 8y agoTechnically, there is no pure fusion bomb so I guess in a way you could say everything is fission powered, but that's like saying your gasoline car is battery powered because that's what started the engine.
- msds 8y agoNope! Essentially all modern large thermonuclear devices are fission-fusion-fission devices, where the last fission stage (again, driven by fusion neutrons) produces the majority of the yield. You can omit that stage, by using a non-fissile material, for easier testing (...do you really want to test a 100MT device?...) with less fallout, but in actual use, they would all have fissile tampers.
- grkvlt 8y agoExcept that in a thermonuclear bomb, fission also occurs at the end as well as the start... The initial fission explosion starts off a fusion reaction, and then neutrons from the fusion process carry on to start another fission reaction, usually of the LEU 'tamper' encasing the bomb. In fact, a large proportion of the energy output is from this third stage fission reaction.