Good videos of a ping-pong ball dropped into a room full of ping-pong balls and mousetraps elucidate this idea very well and can be easily found online. At this point, it is a good idea to show a quick video of a chain reaction model. ![]() The catalyst typically occurs in the form of a free neutron, projected directly at the nucleus of a high-mass atom. As a result, a physical catalyst is necessary to produce useful energy through nuclear fission. And although it is true that huge amounts of energy can be released, considerable effort is needed to do so in practice.Īn unstable atom will naturally decay, but it may take millions of years to do so. Given that it requires great energy separate two nucleons, it may come as a surprise to learn that splitting a nucleus can release vast potential energy. In simplest terms, nuclear fission is the splitting of an atomic bond. Through two distinct methods, humankind has discovered multiple ways of manipulating the atom to release its internal energy. Knowing that energy can be emitted in various forms of nuclear change, is it possible to create a nuclear reaction through our own intervention? The answer to this question is yes. This section delves into a less-natural process. Without human intervention, some nuclei will change composition in order to achieve a stable equilibrium. Most H-bombs are measured in "megatons" (equivalent to the explosive power of MILLIONS of tons of TNT - hundreds of times, or even a thousand times more powerful than a fission bomb).The previous section dealt with naturally occurring nuclear decay. Unlike fission bombs, which rely only on nuclear fission, and which can achieve explosions equivalent to thousands of tons of TNT ("kilotons"), the power of an H-bomb or thermonuclear weapon has no practical limit - it can be made as powerful as you want, by adding more deuterium/tritium to the second stage. This third stage more than doubles the power of the explosion, and produces most of the radioactive fallout from the weapon. ![]() The fusion reaction gives off an incredible burst of extremely powerful neutrons - so powerful that they can split or "fission" atoms of uranium-238 (called " depleted uranium") - which is impossible at lower energy levels. This is the "H" or "thermonuclear" part of the bomb. When this hydrogen-rich mix is heated to 100 million degrees, the deuterium and tritium atoms "fuse" together, releasing enormous amounts of energy. The main fusion reaction involves concentrated deuterium and tritium (both heavy isotopes of hydrogen) - which become spontaneously available when neutrons from the first stage explosion bombard a solid material called "lithium deuteride" located in the central column. The second stage explosion is due to nuclear fusion in the central column. Boosted or not, however, the only importance of this first-stage explosion is to irradiate and heat the material in the central column to 100 million degrees celsius so that a much more powerful fusion reaction can be started there. Tritium is often added to the centre of the plutonium core to "boost" the fission explosion with some additional fusion energy. ![]() The energy release at this stage is mainly due to nuclear fission - because the atoms of plutonium are split. The first stage, called the "trigger" (the black ball at the top), is a small plutonium bomb similar to the one dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. ![]() In the photo, he is standing on the steps of the US Supreme Court holding a cut-away model of the H-bomb.Īn H-bomb is a three-stage weapon: fission, fusion, and then fission again. Howard Morland wrote a magazine article explaining how an "H-Bomb" - or "thermonuclear bomb" - is made, using only publicly available information. How To Make an H-Bomb (or Thermonuclear bomb) How To Make an H-Bomb (or Thermonuclear bomb)
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