Probably the best unclassified sources of this information are Richard Rhodes books: The Making of the Atomic Bomb and Dark Sun.
Atomic bombs, A bombs, fission bombsHydrogen bombs, H bombs, fusion bombsBoosted fission bombs, "dial-a-yield" bombsMultistaged fusion bombsClean fusion bombs, reduced fallout fusion bombsSalted fusion bombs, dirty fusion bombs, increased fallout fusion bombsetc.
Both basically are the same, they can be fission or fusion bombs like Uranium,Plutonium and Hydrogen bombs. A general description would be that atomic bombs are fission bombs. Nuclear bombs are fusion bombs. Fusion bombs are more powerful weight for weight
To some degree. Hydrogen bombs release energy via nuclear fusion, but they use a fission reaction to trigger the fusion.
The bombs used on Nagasaki and Hiroshima were both fission bombs, not fusion bombs.
Yes.TacticalStrategicFission - uranium, plutonium, compositeFusionSolid coreLevitated coreBoosted coreConventional fusion - 90% fission from U-238 fusion tamperClean fusion - ~5% fission mostly from primary & sparkplugDirty fusion - bomb is salted with elements intended to intensify falloutNeutron bomb - a small Clean fusion bomb intended to intensify neutron radiationetc., etc., etc.
fission and the fusion types
Nuclear bombs can use either nuclear fission or nuclear fusion as the primary mechanism of energy release. Most nuclear bombs in current arsenals rely on nuclear fission reactions, while thermonuclear bombs use a fission reaction to trigger a fusion reaction.
Good question. A fusion bomb combines (fuses) light nuclei (hydrogen) into larger nuclei to get its energy. But it needs a fission bomb to start it. A fission bomb breaks up (fissions) heavy nuclei (uranium/plutonium) into smaller nuclei to get its energy.
yes, both true & false. They can work either by fission or some combination of fission & fusion. Most modern nuclear bombs use both fission & fusion to optimize for mission, size, weight, cost, etc. Total yield can vary from 100% fission to more than 95% fusion.
fission and/or fusion
higher yield
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.