
Tritium mixture (typically containing 2-3 g of tritium) inside the fissionĬore. Light weight fission bomb by introducing a modest amount of deuterium. Neutron bombs were apparently not developedīy either nation until the late 1960s or early 1970s.įusion boosting is a technique for increasing the efficiency of a small The fusion boosting and Alarm Clock/Layer Cake designs were pioneered by the Neutrons to achieve significant fission yield enhancement, thus reducing theĮxpenditure of fissile material for a given yield. All of them depend on the highly energetic Plutonium is a factor of 10 times cheaper per unit ofĮnergy released compared to D-T fuel, and HEU is 3-5 times cheaper still.įurthermore due to radioactive decay the tritium continuously disappears atĪ rate of 5.5% annually and must be replaced.Ī number of weapon designs have been developed that use the D-T reaction inĪ variety of ways however. Igniting a large mass of D-T fuel mixture with a fission trigger - is The naive approach to using this reaction - making a large explosion by Reaction achievable by simply heating the fuel with a fission bomb is the D. Improved calculations showed that this was impossible. In a mass of liquid deuterium adjacent to it. Heat from the fission trigger would ignite a self-sustaining fusion reaction The first designs proposed for fusion bombs in the U.S.
Fission bomb archive#
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