What is the atomic bomb made of?

Answer 1

An atomic bomb contains 1) ordinary explosives, 2) certain radioactive elements, and 3) a structure built of other elements that help to trigger the nuclear explosion. A nuclear weapon is essentially a mechanism to initiate the fission of heavy elements (such as uranium and plutonium) into smaller atoms.

An atomic bomb basically contains one or more masses of a fissile element. They are pushed together by the detonation of a small explosive to form what is called a supercritical mass(a critical mass is sufficient material to sustain a chain reaction). When the atoms split, they release neutrons. The neutrons released by one split triggers more splits, which trigger more splits, and so forth in a chain reaction. The reaction spreads throughout the critical mass practically instantaneously. In microseconds, several moles of atoms have a small part of their mass turned to energy, enough to create a fireball with a temperature of millions of degrees. This energy creates the heat pulse and destructive shock wave of the bomb.

H-Bomb

The hydrogen bomb, or thermonuclear weapon, uses the heat and pressure of the atomic chain reaction to cause fusion of a lighter element (hydrogen), which releases more energy per atom than fission. Some hydrogen bombs create even greater energy by using the fusion reaction to trigger yet another fission reaction in a tamper or blanket of uranium around the bomb. The fission-fusion-fission design creates the most powerful nuclear explosives, up to 100 megatons (of TNT) or more. But very few of these huge bombs were ever built, and none are known to exist today.