The nuclear bombs - Part 2 : The H-bomb

in #steemstem • 7 years ago

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Hello everyone,

I took a lot of pleasure writing my last post and I have the impression that you liked it too. As you can see it was only the first post in a 2-3 post series about nuclear weapons. And as you can see this is part 2 and this post has for theme H bomb.

THE FUSION

Unlike the bomb A bomb H does not use the phenomenon of fission to create energy, but that of fusion. So, to begin, I will explain what nuclear fusion is. Fusion is a process that naturally forms within the stars of our universe. This is a so-called thermonuclear reaction. Fusion as its name suggests is the assembly of two so-called light atomic nuclei (whose atomic mass of the sum of the two atoms does not exceed 60) into another larger nucleus. This reaction is possible only at very high temperatures, of the order of tens of millions of degrees Celsius. When two atoms are fused the atomic mass of the created atom and the emitted particle is not equal to the mass of the products. This is due to the fact that during melting a part of the mass of reactants is converted into energy which is most often a thermal energy. The equation used to calculate the energy emitted is the famous equation written by Albert Einstein E = mc², but in reality this equation is false, and Albert Einstein never wrote it in this way the true equation is the following: E = | Δm | c². E being the Joules value of the energy emitted, Δm the mass difference of the products and reagents called the mass defect and c the luminous constant is 299 792 458 m · c-1

Fonctionnement d’une bombe H

To understand how an H-bomb works, you first have to understand the operation of an A-type atomic bomb that works through the mechanism of fission, and that's good because I did a post on the bomb. A. A bomb H is composed of two parts called stages. On the first floor is the equivalent of an A bomb with an implosion assembly. In the second floor are other pieces of fissile material, mostly plutonium. These "pieces" are organized to envelop the material that will cause the fusion, which is most often hydrogen because the fusion of light nuclei requires less energy than the fusion of heavier materials, so we take the nuclei the lighter, that is to say the hydrogen nuclei which gives its name to the bomb H, the Hydrogen bomb. The neutrons expelled by the bomb A as well as the X-rays that are caused are actually propelled against the walls of the bomb which are lined with an X-ray reflecting material on the plutonium contained in the second stage, which causes a reaction. in chain creating a lot of heat is a very high pressure allowing the hydrogen atoms to merge and create at the same time an astronomical amount of energy which will be expelled in this case in the form of an explosion.

HISTORY OF THE H-BOMB

The idea of ​​creating a fusion bomb was launched by Edward Teller at the dawn of what would become the Manhattan project in 1941, he had the idea to launch the fusion reaction by a fission bomb (bomb A). He spent most of his time during the Manhattan Project trying to find a design to run his idea, neglecting at the same time his work on the Manhattan Project's fission bomb program. His attitude and the fact that he defended a project he was not sure of success during a meeting forced Robert Oppenheimer to remove him from the project.
In 1949, the Soviets exploded their first fission bomb, the Americans no longer had the monopoly of nuclear weapons which caused a shock in the middle of the cold war, so they launched themselves in the search for the bomb fusion. The Los Alamos laboratory was charged with the project of developing such a bomb, but Oppenheimer was against that decision, not wanting to create another weapon of mass destruction. Teller is therefore appointed project manager, but his design is currently not effective to create such a bomb.
Stanislaw Ulam, a colleague from Teller, was the first to find a viable design for triggering a nuclear fusion. The two innovations he envisioned were the compression of the melting material before the latter was heated and the two-part separation of the thermonuclear fuel and the fission material. To compress the fusion material, he planned to use the shockwaves to start fission of the second stage, but Teller suggested using Gamma and X radiation created on the first floor because it would transfer enough energy to fuel the reaction. . The two stages of the bomb were then enveloped by a device reflecting the radiation.
Ivy Mike nuclear test
Following this research, the H bomb was created and on November 1, 1952, the so-called Teller-Ulam bomb was tested at the launch Ivy Mike on the Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific. This bomb had a power of 10.4 Mt which is equivalent to 450 times the power of Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
Following this, the USSR launched its own development of nuclear fusion weapon, this race for nuclear weapons (which was a kind of game of which has the biggest) ended October 30, 1961 with the explosion of the Tsar Bomba a basic bomb was a FFF (Fission-Fusion-Fission) bomb with a potential energy of 100Mt, but which was transformed into H bomb following the replacement of the lead third stage uranium to avoid the fall back radioactive harmful. After the limitation, the dropped bomb had a power of 57 Mt making it the most powerful nuclear bomb of all time. She was dropped in Siberia and the explosion was visible up to 1000km
Since several countries have had such a weapon, but only the victors of the Second World War have the right to own it, they are: The United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China and France. Yet other countries hold the H bomb: India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, according to unofficial sources.

-=Sources=-

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#physics #busy #sciences #history
7 years ago in #steemstem by
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     7 years ago 

    Dear steemer,
    nice post and I followed you :) Please follow me :)

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       7 years ago 

      Good post about a powerful topic in science. The H-bomb surprised many people when it was created, as some didn't think we could create anything that powerful. Let's hope that it's never used. Our discovery of science is powerful and sometimes scary.

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         7 years ago 

        Yes it's true, and it's during the war time that we make the biggest discoveries. Competition increase a lot the amount of sciences discoveries

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