Military History : Hydrogen Bomb 1952

 First Hydrogen Bomb Detonated by the USA : 1952

"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" ~ Dr. Strangelove. The United States tests the first hydrogen bomb during November at the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The thermonuclear bomb, codenamed Mike, was dropped on the island of Elugelab in Enewetak Atoll as a part of Operation Ivy. The island was completely destroyed in the blast which was equivalent to the force of 10 million tons of T.N.T. and the wildlife & vegetation on the surrounding islands was also demolished. The first hydrogen bomb was a two-stage fusion device designed by Edward Teller & Stanislaw Ulam. It was about 1000 times more powerful than the original atomic bomb and its successful detonation accelerated the nuclear arms race during the Cold War. In 1953, the Soviet Union would test their own version. 

In the same year, the United Kingdom tests its first atomic bomb in Australia. Everyone was bombing and destroying parts of our beautiful natural world, Gaia must have cried at this despicable human actions.

A basic diagram of a thermonuclear weapon.

Note: some designs use spherical secondaries.  

A) fission primary stage

B) fusion secondary stage  

1) High-explosive lenses

2) Uranium-238 ("tamper") lined with beryllium reflector

3) Vacuum ("levitated core")

4) Tritium "boost" gas (blue) within plutonium or uranium hollow core 

5) Radiation channel filled with polystyrene foam

6) Uranium ("pusher/tamper")

7) Lithium-6 deuteride (fusion fuel)

8) Plutonium ("spark plug")

9) Radiation case (confines thermal X-rays by reflection)