![]() North Korea’s state-run broadcaster said on Sunday that the country had successfully conducted a test of a hydrogen bomb that can be loaded onto its new intercontinental ballistic missiles.īack in January 2016, North Korea announced its first test of a hydrogen bomb, a major leap in its nuclear program that promptly drew international condemnation. If North Korea really has tested a hydrogen bomb, as it claims - and that remains a big “if” - it has joined a select group.Īccording to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China have nuclear arsenals composed of hydrogen weapons Israel, India, and Pakistan are generally believed to have nuclear weapons that use only nuclear fission. The first hydrogen bomb tested by the United States in November 1952 released the equivalent energy of 10,000 kilotons (or 10 megatons) of TNT. The two-stage process is often referred to as a thermonuclear reaction. Hydrogen bombs use nuclear fusion, in which atoms fuse together, to release even greater amounts of energy. How powerful are hydrogen bombs? Think of it this way: They use atomic bombs just as a trigger.Ītomic weapons like those previously tested by North Korea rely on nuclear fission to release energy - basically splitting atoms. The bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II used this technology to release explosive power equivalent to about 15 and 20 kilotons (1,000 metric tons) of TNT, respectively. The hydrogen bomb is the standard for the five nations with the greatest nuclear weapons capability: Russia, the US, France, China and the UK Other nations may either have it or be working on it, despite a worldwide effort to contain such proliferation.Watch Video: Reports: North Korea has an advanced hydrogen bomb With its higher power, a hydrogen bomb can be made small enough to fit on the head of an intercontinental missile. The atomic bombs that hit Japan were huge and had to be dropped from planes flying overhead. This 1960 image released by the US Department of Defense shows the Little Boy atomic bomb, the type detonated over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Fission weapons are sometimes called atomic bombs, while fusion weapons are also known as hydrogen bombs or thermonuclear weapons. A typical hydrogen bomb is two-stage: First, an atomic fission bomb detonates, and that in turn starts the fusion of a hydrogen isotope in a second section. H-bombs are also known as thermonuclear bombs, because of the extremely high temperature needed to induce fusion. It’s the same process that keeps the sun and other stars burning. The hydrogen bomb uses both fission and fusion - the fusing together of atomic nuclei - to produce more explosive energy. Experts believe the yield of North Korea’s latest test was at least 140 kilotons, which would make it some seven to eight times as powerful as Hiroshima (15 kilotons) and Nagasaki (about 20).Ītomic bombs rely on fission, or the splitting of the nucleus of an atom, just as nuclear power plants do. A neutron is shot at the nucleus and is absorbed, causing instability and fission. This can sometimes occur spontaneously, but can also, in certain nuclei, be induced from outside. Their yields of 10,000 kilotons and more were several hundred times larger than the bombs that levelled Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There, hundreds of scientists and engineers developed the Gadget (the world’s first nuclear test device), Little Boy (the uranium-fueled atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan), and Fat Man. During fission, the nuclei of certain heavy atoms split into smaller, lighter nuclei, releasing excess energy in the process. The US conducted the first successful tests of hydrogen bombs in the 1950s. This undated picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) looking at a metal casing with two bulges at an undisclosed location.(AFP Photo)Ī hydrogen bomb can be far more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Japan in World War II. If true, it would represent a major step forward in North Korea’s effort to develop a nuclear weapon capable of reaching the United States. Outside experts haven’t been able to verify that claim, but say it’s plausible. North Korea says it successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb in its latest nuclear test Sunday.
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