4 ms·
The Ivy Mike device used cryogenic liquid deuterium instead of solid lithium-6 hydride, so the secondary was very different from any sort of practical hydrogen
by George83728 3y ago
The Ivy Mike device used cryogenic liquid deuterium instead of solid lithium-6 hydride, so the secondary was very different from any sort of practical hydrogen bomb. Maybe the tolerances were looser for the Ivy Mike device, maybe not, but I wouldn't draw many conclusions from it.
- lumost 3y agoIvy Mike was also a much larger experimental apparatus. In addition to liquid deuterium cooling, it's possible the designers used other mechanisms to relax tolerances such as. 1. Using a much larger fission yield then necessary 2. Using a much larger/denser elispes than necessary to avoid manufacturing errors becoming problematic. 3. Using a much more massive reflector than necessary. The goal of the Ivy Mike test was to validate the concept of the design - not necessarily to validate that it could be made into a practical bomb. I'm not sure if its ever been revealed wether the filler for the shell has any significance towards the final device.