North Korea claims it’s created a thermonuclear bomb, so how is this any worse than just a
regular ol’ nuclear bomb?
Blessings of the glorious leader be upon you, I’m Julian here for DNews.
North Korea, a country that ranks in my top two Koreas, recently announced it has successfully
detonated a Hydrogen bomb.
The country has a detonated atomic weapons in the past but an H-bomb could be a game
changer.
First, a quick primer on atomic weapons.
The original A-bombs, like the ones the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki worked by
splitting the nuclei of heavy elements into smaller ones in a process called fission.
They use either Uranium-235 or Plutonium which, when split, release neutrons that split more
atoms in a chain reaction.
The resulting elements have a smaller total mass than the original, so where did that
missing mass go?
Well if you remember Einstein’s equation E=mc2 you know that energy is equal to mass
times the speed of light squared.
This means that a tiny amount of mass is equivalent to huge amounts of energy.
If you’re making a weapon, this principle means the amount of Uranium-235 you can fit
in a coffee mug packs the same punch as 20 thousand tons of TNT.
But A-bombs leave a lot of atomic fuel un-split, which is where Hydrogen bombs come in.
An H-bomb detonation starts the same way an A-bomb does: Uranium-235 or Plutonium is split,
releasing tons of energy.
However, right next to the A-bomb primary is, you guessed it, hydrogen.
More specifically, Deuterium and Tritium.
Deuterium is a stable hydrogen isotope with one proton and one neutron, and Tritium is
also an isotope with one proton and two neutrons.
The two isotopes can be smashed together to form helium in a process called fusion, like
what happens in the core of our sun, but that only starts to happen at 50 million degrees
celsius, hence why these devices are called "thermonuclear bombs."
The x-rays from the exploding atomic bomb have enough energy to implode the hydrogen
and they travel at the speed of light, so they get to the Hydrogen before the shock
wave blows the bomb apart into less deadly chunks.
Of course, the fusion fuel produces plenty of energy itself, but it also produces more
free neutrons which can be used to make the fission more efficient.
For this reason the H-bomb is often wrapped in a “tamper” of more Uranium-235, meaning
it explodes in stages of fission to fusion to fission again, like a turducken of armageddon.
Theoretically it could have several stages, and designs with up to seven layers have been
drawn up, but eventually what’s the point?
I mean just how dead to you need to make something?
The largest man-made explosion ever was a 3-stage Hydrogen bomb the equivalent of 50
million tons of TNT called the Tsar Bomba.
I’ll let you guess the country.
So Hydrogen bombs can be thousands of times more energetic than Atomic weapons, which
North Korea has already tested.
And since they deliver maximum bang for their size, h-bombs can more easily fit on a missile
and devastate a city.
But North Korea probably didn't set off and H-bomb.
The seismic readings from the test area are on par with nuclear tests the country conducted
3 years ago, making experts skeptical North Korea has pulled off the expensive and complicated
feat of creating a thermonuclear device.
You may be wondering how North Korea figured out how to make any sort of atomic weapon
in the first place.
You can get your history fix from Lisette at Test Tube right over here.
Are you worried about North Korea or is their bark worse than their bite?
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