"Mike" is the first fusion bomb: Explosion of Mike completely obliterated the island.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
It takes the explosion of an atomic bomb to just detonate a hydrogen bomb.
The device detonated in the Mike shot, called the Sausage, was the first H-Bomb ever tested, built upon the Teller-Ulam principles of staged radiation implosion. The 10.4Mt device used two stages, with a fission bomb as the primary, and a secondary stage of liquid deuterium fuel in a cylindrical dewar. The dewar was surrounded by a uranium pusher/tamper weighing 5 tons. The steel housing was 2m wide and 6.1m long, with walls 30cm thick. The inside surface of the casing was lined with sheets of lead and polyethylene to form a conduit from the primary to the secondary. The entire device weighed 82 tons making it un-usable weapon. The test island of Eluelab was completely obliterated, the resulting crater was 1.9km wide and 50m deep. 77% (8mt) of the yield was due to fast fission of the natural uranium pusher/tamper making this an extremely "dirty" test showering high levels of radiation over the atoll. The mushroom cloud climbed to 17,000m in only 90 seconds, entering the stratosphere. Within 1 minute it had reached 33,000m, eventually stabilizing at a ceiling of 36,500m. Half an hour after the test the mushroom stretched 96km across. Additional clip using time lapse photography.
It takes the explosion of an atomic bomb to just detonate a hydrogen bomb.
2012-07-21T10:31:00+05:30
treebeard31
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