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Basically a nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion.

A nuclear bomb also known as an atomic bomb. This is a bomb where nuclear fission is the sole source of the energy for the explosion. This explosion occurs when uranium235 and/or plutonium239 is transformed from a subcritical mass to a supercritical mass very rapidly, when a few neutrons are then fired into that supercritical mass the chain reaction continues and cascades at an exponentially increasing rate until it results in a huge explosion. However such fission only bombs have a theoretical limit to their yield of under 1 megaton.

If fusion is involved somewhere in the bomb, hydrogen nuclei (typically deuterium and tritium) fuse. By use of multiple fusion stages the yield of such bombs can be increased without theoretical limit.

Some very high yield fusion bombs are enclosed in a shell of uranium238 which will not normally fission, however the very high energy fusion neutrons can cause it to fission. This one feature can provide as much as 90% of the bomb's total yield, but also increases fallout by a similar amount.

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8y ago

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