IVY-MIKE -- FIRST HYDROGEN BOMB TEST

The First British Hydrogen Bomb

Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Reenactment

Hiroshima Accident

No one will ever know for certain how many died as a result of the attack on Hiroshima. Some 70,000 people probably died as a result of initial blast, heat, and radiation effects. This included about twenty American airmen being held as prisoners in the city. By the end of 1945, because of the lingering effects of radioactive fallout and other after effects, the Hiroshima death toll was probably over 100,000. The five-year death total may have reached or even exceeded 200,000, as cancer and other long-term effects took hold.

Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear fusion is a process in which two atoms combine into a single larger atom, releasing large amounts of energy. Because it occurs only at excessively high temperatures and pressures such as those found in the core of the sun, where hydrogen fuses into helium, controlling fusion on earth is exceedingly difficult. The basis for the H-bomb is the "Teller-Ulam" configuration, which uses the huge energy released by nuclear fission to create the conditions necessary to ignite fusion in a secondary stage of the bomb. Fission is a process roughly the opposite of fusion: It releases energy through the physical smashing of an atomic nucleus into smaller parts. In addition to these two stages, an H-bomb might have a third stage consisting of depleted uranium or other fissile material.

What is a Hydrogen Bomb?

A hydrogen bomb, is a type of nuclear weapon that uses staging of both fission and fusion reactions to create a thermonuclear explosion. Precise details of the chemical reactions inside a hydrogen bomb are classified, but, through leaks from former bomb designers and some speculation, the general process is fairly well understood.