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It is, but tritium is not put into bombs. Lithium is. Both are put into bombs. The main concern when it comes to tritium supply, regards tritium used for boos

It is, but tritium is not put into bombs. Lithium is. Both are put into bombs. The main concern when it comes to tritium supply, regards tritium used for boosting of fission charges. Both applications are crucially important, but fusion boosting appears to require significantly larger quantities of tritium. Tritium and deuterium for boosting are supplied to the weapon from an external reservoir (gas bottle) as part of the arming process of the weapon. Since about 5.5% of existing tritium decays every year, the tritium assigned to each weapon must be regularly replenished. This is done by removing the weapon’s tritium reservoir and exchanging it with a newly refilled reservoir (5). Figure 1.3 shows what may be such a reservoir. From Norwegian Defence Research Establishment report "Tritium production": https://publications.ffi.no/nb/item/asset/dspace:6780/20-01388.pdf https://publications.ffi.no/nb/item/asset/dspace:6780/20-013... Also see this Savannah River Site page about tritium supply for weapons: https://www.srs.gov/general/programs/dp/index.htm https://www.srs.gov/general/programs/dp/index.htm And for a deeper dive, this fascinating blog post: "U.S. Tritium Production for the Nuclear Weapons Stockpile – Not Like the Old Days of the Cold War" https://lynceans.org/all-posts/u-s-tritium-production-for-the-nuclear-weapons-stockpile-not-like-the-old-days-of-the-cold-war/ https://lynceans.org/all-posts/u-s-tritium-production-for-th...

why_Mr_Anderson 6y ago
You are both correct :) Tritium is used for boosting fission bombs, lithium (lithium 6/7 deuterides) as fusion fuel in thermonuclear bombs.
- peckrob 6y ago
  So interesting story about this. We originally didn't know Lithium-7 would be useful in thermonuclear weapons. It was assumed that it would be inert and that only the Lithium-6 would react with neutrons from the fission primary and breed tritium for the fusion secondary. Then we tested a bomb [0] and the yield on it was accidentally 2.5x greater than anticipated. So large, in fact, that it is still the largest bomb ever detonated by the USA. It turns out that Lithium-7 will also breed tritium if the neutrons are powerful enough, and emits an additional neutron to continue the reaction. Reactions that we might never have discovered (or probably not until later) if it hadn't been for this mistake. The end result was a lot more fuel for the bomb, and the explosion was so large that many of the measuring instruments were vaporized. The large yield also contributed to a radiological disaster [1], which was then the inspiration for the original Godzilla [2]. Anyways, that's how a math/chemistry mistake lead to the most famous kaiju movie (series) of all time. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigo_Fukury%C5%AB_Maru https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigo_Fukury%C5%AB_Maru [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film)

why_Mr_Anderson 6y ago

You are both correct :) Tritium is used for boosting fission bombs, lithium (lithium 6/7 deuterides) as fusion fuel in thermonuclear bombs.

peckrob 6y ago
So interesting story about this. We originally didn't know Lithium-7 would be useful in thermonuclear weapons. It was assumed that it would be inert and that only the Lithium-6 would react with neutrons from the fission primary and breed tritium for the fusion secondary. Then we tested a bomb [0] and the yield on it was accidentally 2.5x greater than anticipated. So large, in fact, that it is still the largest bomb ever detonated by the USA. It turns out that Lithium-7 will also breed tritium if the neutrons are powerful enough, and emits an additional neutron to continue the reaction. Reactions that we might never have discovered (or probably not until later) if it hadn't been for this mistake. The end result was a lot more fuel for the bomb, and the explosion was so large that many of the measuring instruments were vaporized. The large yield also contributed to a radiological disaster [1], which was then the inspiration for the original Godzilla [2]. Anyways, that's how a math/chemistry mistake lead to the most famous kaiju movie (series) of all time. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigo_Fukury%C5%AB_Maru https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigo_Fukury%C5%AB_Maru [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film)