rahul kushwaha
Last Activity: 8 Years ago
Fission bombs worked, but they weren`t very efficient. It didn`t take scientists long to wonder if the opposite nuclear process -- fusion -- might work better. Fusion occurs when the nuclei of two atoms combine to form a single heavier atom. At extremely high temperatures, the nuclei of hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium can readily fuse, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process. Weapons that take advantage of this process are known as fusion bombs, thermonuclear bombs or hydrogen bombs. Fusion bombs have higher kiloton yields and greater efficiencies than fission bombs, but they present some problems that must be solved:Deuterium and tritium, the fuels for fusion, are both gases, which are hard to store.Tritium is in short supply and has a short half-life.Fuel in the bomb has to be continuously replenished.Deuterium or tritium has to be highly compressed at high temperature to initiate the fusion reaction.Scientists overcome the first problem by using lithium-deuterate, a solid compound that doesn`t undergo radioactive decay at normal temperature, as the principal thermonuclear material. To overcome the tritium problem, bomb designers rely on a fission reaction to produce tritium from lithium. The fission reaction also solves the final problem. The majority of radiation given off in a fission reaction is X-rays, and these X-rays provide the high temperatures and pressures necessary to initiate fusion. So, a fusion bomb has a two-stage design -- a primary fission or boosted-fission component and a secondary fusion component.