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Sep 29, 2016 · Modern nuclear weapons work by combining chemical explosives, nuclear fission, and nuclear fusion. The explosives compress nuclear material, causing fission; the fission releases massive amounts of energy in the form of X-rays, which create the high temperature and pressure needed to ignite fusion.
The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy released such as blast, thermal, and nuclear radiation, when that particular nuclear weapon is detonated, usually expressed as a TNT equivalent (the standardized equivalent mass of trinitrotoluene which, if detonated, would produce the same energy discharge), either in kilotonnes ...
All existing nuclear weapons derive some of their explosive energy from nuclear fission reactions. Weapons whose explosive output is exclusively from fission reactions are commonly referred to as atomic bombs or atom bombs (abbreviated as A-bombs).
Nov 24, 2020 · There are two types of nuclear weapons: fission weapons such as those used in 1945 and fusion weapons. Fission weapons generate energy by splitting atoms, fusion weapons (or hydrogen/ H bombs) generate energy by fusing atoms together. Most modern nuclear weapons are fusion bombs.
- Andrew Futter
- ajf57@leicester.ac.uk
- 2021
Oct 12, 2024 · Nuclear weapons produce enormous explosive energy. Their significance may best be appreciated by the coining of the words kiloton (1,000 tons) and megaton (1,000,000 tons) to describe their blast energy in equivalent weights of the conventional chemical explosive TNT.
- A nuclear weapon is a device designed to release energy in an explosive manner as a result of nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, or a combination of...
- Concerns about the devastating effects of nuclear weapons have driven governments to negotiate arms control agreements. Some of the earliest ones i...
- The first test of a nuclear weapon occurred in the United States on July 16, 1945, at the Alamogordo Bombing Range in south-central New Mexico. The...
- The Soviet Union had the most nuclear weapons during the Cold War. The Soviet stockpile reached a peak of about 33,000 operational warheads in 1988...
Oct 12, 2024 · When a nuclear weapon detonates, a fireball occurs with temperatures similar to those at the center of the Sun. The energy emitted takes several forms. Approximately 85 percent of the explosive energy produces air blast (and shock) and thermal radiation (heat).
“atomic energy” that can produce electricity or an explosion.1 On average, such a fission of a U-235 atom produces about 2.5 new neutrons. If all released neutrons are absorbed by new U-235 atoms, an exponentially growing chain reaction sets in, with the number of atoms involved growing from 1, to 2.5 (on average), to 2.52 = 6.25, etc ...
