0
What was another name and the yield of the highest yield US stockpiled pure fission bomb - the MK-18?
EcclesJordanTrigger
The Mk-18 bomb was also known as the SOB -- the Super Oralloy Bomb. It had a design yield of about 500 kilotons. With an advanced 92 point implosion system and over 4 critical masses of fissile material in the core (60kg highly enriched uranium pit, and a uranium tamper) it was a dangerous weapon -- even an accidental firing of one of the detonators causing a "fizzle" would have produced a significant nuclear yield (in the kiloton range).
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
What are some famous nuclear bomb explosions?
TrinityHiroshimaNagasakiCrossroads Baker (first underwater)Ivy Mike (first fusion bomb, 90% fission yield)Ivy King (highest yield fission bomb)Castle Bravo (first dry fuel fusion bomb, 90% fission yield)Castle Romeo (test of first deliverable fusion bomb, MK-17)Redwing Zuni (test of first clean fusion bomb)Redwing Navaho (test of clean fusion bomb, only 5% fission yield)Tzar Bomba (highest yield fusion bomb, USSR)etc.
Is the nuclear bomb bigger than the atomic bomb?
The terms atomic bomb and nuclear bomb are interchangeable as both obtain their energy from the atomic nucleus. So neither is bigger.There are two processes to get the energy for a bomb out of the atomic nucleus:fission, the breaking up of large nuclei into smaller onesfusion, the joining of small nuclei together into larger ones.Pure fission bombs have a practical yield limit between 500 KTons and 1 MTon because of criticality limits: too much fuel in the bomb will cause it to "predetonate" and melt before it can be delivered to a target. Fusion bombs do not have this limit: you can put as much fuel as you want to get as high a yield as you might like.However no modern nuclear weapon is pure fission or pure fusion, the processes are mixed in a variety of ways to get the exact effects desired, in the package size desired, at the production cost desired. Therefore some fission bombs are higher yield than some fusion bombs and vice versa.
Who has the strongest nuclear weapons in the world?
If by strongest you mean highest yield, I believe this would be Russia. Current treaties allow them higher yield weapons because their ICBMs are somewhat less accurate than US ICBMs.
What is a U bomb?
A U-Bomb was believed to be an Atomic (fission explosion) or Hydrogen (fusion explosion) Bomb with a Uranium Casing. The casing was supposedly made of U-238, residual uranium material leftover from processing that was non-fissionable (couldn't be made to explode like a U-235 bomb). In a fission bomb, a U-235 (Uranium) or Plutonium (Uranium enriched through processing to increase the yield) nucleus is split with a neutron resulting in the release of nuclear energy as an explosion. In a fusion bomb, an isotope of hydrogen (either deuterium (H2) or tritium (H3)) is fused into helium by extreme temperature, which is generated by a fission explosion as the detonating device. Since U-238 was essentially worthless, finding a use for it that would enhance either types of nuclear explosion would have been a major step, and it's thought that the U-Bomb was exactly that - a regular fission or fusion bomb with a casing made of U-238, which, though not able to be detonated like U-235, would explode in the high temperatures generated by a fission or fusion explosion, thereby enhancing the nuclear yield (intensity) of the explosion itself. For obvious security reasons, its existence was neither confirmed nor denied by the military. --- Today, the design is part of some high-yield nuclear warheads, although the bombs would produce extreme amounts of radioactive fallout. The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, the 50-megaton Soviet "Tsar Bomba", could theoretically have yielded 100 megatons or more because it used this design.
Who is the strongest bomb tzar bombs or atomic bomb?
The Tsar Bomba was a type of atomic bomb, specifically a thermonuclear fusion bomb. It was the highest yield atomic bomb ever built at 52 to 58 MTons depending on method of measurement.The Tsar Bomba was not the largest atomic bomb ever built, that was Ivy Mike also a thermonuclear fusion bomb. Mike's yield was only 10 MTons.
What are some famous nuclear bomb explosions?
TrinityHiroshimaNagasakiCrossroads Baker (first underwater)Ivy Mike (first fusion bomb, 90% fission yield)Ivy King (highest yield fission bomb)Castle Bravo (first dry fuel fusion bomb, 90% fission yield)Castle Romeo (test of first deliverable fusion bomb, MK-17)Redwing Zuni (test of first clean fusion bomb)Redwing Navaho (test of clean fusion bomb, only 5% fission yield)Tzar Bomba (highest yield fusion bomb, USSR)etc.
What is the largest nuclear bomb?
The Tsar Bomba. It was tested in 1961 by the USSR on the island of Novaya Zemlya within the Arctic Circle. Its design yield was 100 megatons, but the yield was reduced to 57 megatons for the test by replacing the uranium-238 third stage tamper with a different metal (e.g. lead, tungsten) that would not fission when hit by the high energy fusion neutrons (and thus would not contribute to the yield or the fallout).The Tsar Bomba was not only the highest yield nuclear bomb ever tested, it was the highest yield nuclear bomb actually dropped from a bomber airplane. The Tsar Bomba also turned out to be the cleanest nuclear explosion with only about 3% fission yield and a correspondingly small amount of fallout relative to its total yield. Nuclear explosions having 5% or less fission yield are usually called "clean".
Does the US have a 100 megaton yield bomb?
No, no country has ever had a 100 megaton bomb in production. The USSR tested a device with a 52 to 58 megaton yield called the Tsar Bomba, that they claimed was designed for 100 megatons (it was tested in a reduced yield configuration for various safety reasons). But this test was mostly for propaganda purposes and the bomb was never stockpiled in either configuration. The US once stockpiled a missile warhead with a 25 megaton yield. The highest yield weapons in any country's stockpile now are in the 300 kiloton to 500 kiloton range, as it has been demonstrated that anything higher is not really militarily useful.
What was the nickname of the first H-bomb?
Greenhouse George. 225 kilotons.George is said to have "lit a fusion match with a fission blast furnace". The yield of the fission bomb that ignited George's fusion fuel was well in excess of 200 kilotons, the highest yield fission bomb detonated to that date. The actual fusion yield of George likely probably did not exceed 1 kiloton.Ivy Mike, 10 megatons, was the first true fusion bomb. About 1 megaton of that was fusion.
What are the benefits of fusion over fission bombs?
higher yield
How is the neutron yield of an AmBe neutron source facility increased?
Fission
Why is thermonuclear bomb are called dirty bombs?
They aren't usually. However there are 3 variant designs of fusion bombs:High yield - this is the conventional design using either depleted uranium or natural uranium for the tamper of the fusion stage(s). Over 90% of the yield is produced by fission in the tamper caused by 15 MeV fusion neutrons. As nearly all the yield is fission their fallout is roughly proportional to that of pure fission bombs of the same yield (if pure fission bombs of that yield were possible).Clean - this is a reduced fallout design that sacrifices some yield by using inert materials like lead, tungsten, iron, etc. for the tamper of the fusion stage(s). Over 95% of the yield can be produced by fusion. Total fallout would be only a tiny fraction of that of a pure fission bomb of the same yield (if pure fission bombs of that yield were possible).Dirty - this is usually referred to as an enhanced fallout bomb instead of a dirty bomb, like the clean design it sacrifices some yield. In these some or all of the uranium tamper would be replaced by materials with large neutron capture crosssections that become "activated" on absorbing a neutron. Some possible materials that have been proposed at various times are cobalt, gold, silver. 95% or more of the yield might be fusion. Total fallout would be much greater than that of a pure fission bomb of the same yield (if pure fission bombs of that yield were possible). Due to their limited military value, no country is known to have built or stockpiled any. The cobalt bomb was a common idea in fiction stories of the 1950s though, to frighten readers.The term dirty bomb has come to refer mostly to radiological weapons: a conventional explosive enclosed in hot radioisotopes that are dispersed when the explosive detonates. These have severe practicality problems and will likely kill anyone attempting to use them before they could set it up.
Why are thermonuclear bombs called dirty bombs?
They aren't usually. However there are 3 variant designs of fusion bombs:High yield - this is the conventional design using either depleted uranium or natural uranium for the tamper of the fusion stage(s). Over 90% of the yield is produced by fission in the tamper caused by 15 MeV fusion neutrons. As nearly all the yield is fission their fallout is roughly proportional to that of pure fission bombs of the same yield (if pure fission bombs of that yield were possible).Clean - this is a reduced fallout design that sacrifices some yield by using inert materials like lead, tungsten, iron, etc. for the tamper of the fusion stage(s). Over 95% of the yield can be produced by fusion. Total fallout would be only a tiny fraction of that of a pure fission bomb of the same yield (if pure fission bombs of that yield were possible).Dirty - this is usually referred to as an enhanced fallout bomb instead of a dirty bomb, like the clean design it sacrifices some yield. In these some or all of the uranium tamper would be replaced by materials with large neutron capture crosssections that become "activated" on absorbing a neutron. Some possible materials that have been proposed at various times are cobalt, gold, silver. 95% or more of the yield might be fusion. Total fallout would be much greater than that of a pure fission bomb of the same yield (if pure fission bombs of that yield were possible). Due to their limited military value, no country is known to have built or stockpiled any. The cobalt bomb was a common idea in fiction stories of the 1950s though, to frighten readers.The term dirty bomb has come to refer mostly to radiological weapons: a conventional explosive enclosed in hot radioisotopes that are dispersed when the explosive detonates. These have severe practicality problems and will likely kill anyone attempting to use them before they could set it up.
What is a dial-a-yield nuclear bomb - fission or fusion?
"Dial-a-yield," or Variable Yield, is a method of adjusting the yield of a nuclear weapon through various means. While most modern high-energy weapons are thermonuclear, both fission and thermonuclear weapons can have their yield adjusted. In a boosted fission weapon (which can also be the primary to a staged radiation implosion weapon), the yield can be adjusted by changing the amount of deuterium/tritium gas that is injected into the plutonium pit, or by the timing of the external neutron initiator, or both. In a staged weapon, causing the secondary to not ignite by adjusting the yield of the primary (see above), or blocking the radiation channel in some way, can also change the yield of the weapon.
What were people worried about with hydrogen bombs?
People were/are worried about fusion bombs for the same reasons they were/are worried about fission bombs, except more so because the yield of a fusion bomb is typically much higher than the yield of a fission bomb. So a fusion bomb typically does more of everything a fission bomb does.
What is the atomic bomb and how do you make it less powerful?
An atomic bomb is any bomb that derives its energy from the atomic nucleus, it may do this by either the process of fission of heavy nuclei or the process of fusion of light nuclei. Atomic bombs can also be called nuclear bombs.I don't really understand what you mean by "make it less powerful". The US has made tactical atomic weapons with yields as low as 0.1KTon (100 tons TNT equivalent), however I don't know if they are still stockpiled (they are very inefficient and wasteful in their use of plutonium). For optimal efficiency in use of uranium or plutonium in pure fission atomic bombs, a yield of 200KTons to 400KTon is preferred, however I know no such bombs are still stockpiled as compact fusion bombs in this yield range and higher are both more efficient and much cheaper to build.
What are the hydrogen bombs after effects?
basically the same as fission bombs but as the yield of fusion bombs are typically much higher the effects are typically much higher.Note: it is possible to build clean low yield fusion bombs with far less fallout than similar yield fission bombs, but the prompt radiation effects are worse.
