UPSC Express

How is atomic bomb different from hydrogen bomb?

• A hydrogen bomb, also called a thermonuclear bomb or an H-bomb.
• It is far more powerful than the relatively simple atomic weapons.
• It uses a second stage of reactions to magnify the force of an atomic explosion.
• The second stage is fusion.
• Fusion is mashing hydrogen atoms together in the same process that fuels the sun.
• When these relatively light atoms join together, they unleash neutrons in a wave of destructive energy.
• A hydrogen weapon uses an initial nuclear fission explosion to create a tremendous pulse that compresses and fuses small amounts of deuterium and tritium, kinds of hydrogen, near the heart of the bomb.
• The swarms of neutrons set free can ramp up the explosive chain reaction of a uranium layer wrapped around it, creating a blast far more devastating than uranium fission alone.

Nations having hydrogen bomb:

• The United States tested a hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll in 1954 that was over 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
• Britain, China, France and Russia have also created hydrogen bombs.
• Other nations may also either have it or are working on it, despite a worldwide effort to contain such proliferation.