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A boosted fission weapon usually refers to a type of nuclear bomb that uses a small amount of fusion fuel to increase the rate, and thus yield, of a fission reaction. The neutrons released by the fusion reactions add to the neutrons released due to fission, allowing for more neutron-induced fission reactions to take place.
This is known as a boosted fission weapon. [5] If a fission device designed for boosting is tested without the boost gas, a yield in the sub-kiloton range may indicate a successful test that the device's implosion and primary fission stages are working as designed, though this does not test the boosting process itself.
In a boosted fission weapon or a thermonuclear weapon, the 14.1-megaelectronvolt (2.26 pJ) neutrons produced by a deuterium-tritium reaction can remain sufficiently energetic to fission uranium-238 even after three collisions with deuterium, but the 2.45-megaelectronvolt (0.393 pJ) ones produced by deuterium-deuterium fusion no longer have ...
Kinglet was a boosted fission primary used in several American thermonuclear weapons. [1]The W55 warhead for the UUM-44 SUBROC anti-submarine missile and the W58 warhead for Polaris A-3 were designed to use Kinglet, while the W47 warhead for Polaris A-1/A-2 were retrofitted with Kinglet to overcome the technical issues with the Robin primary the W47 was initially deployed with.
The first time gun-type fission weapons were discussed was as part of the British Tube Alloys nuclear bomb development program, the world's first nuclear bomb development program. [1] The British MAUD Report [ 2 ] of 1941 laid out how "an effective uranium bomb which, containing some 25 lb of active material, would be equivalent as regards ...
The W33 is the third known model of gun-type fission weapons to have been detonated, and the second as a test explosion. The W33 was tested twice, first in Operation Plumbbob Laplace , on September 8, 1957 with a yield of 1 kilotonne of TNT (4.2 TJ ), [ 10 ] and the TX-33Y2 in Operation Nougat Aardvark on May 12, 1962, with a yield of 40 ...
Orange Herald fireball and subsequent mushroom cloud, film reel captured from a trailing aircraft. Orange Herald was a British nuclear weapon, tested on 31 May 1957.At the time it was reported as an H-bomb, although in fact it was a large boosted fission weapon and remains to date, the largest fission device ever detonated.
Heaviest U.S. weapon, second highest yield of any U.S. weapon. Very similar to Mk-24. (10–15 Megatons) Mark 18 – Very high yield fission weapon (Ivy King device). Mark 20 – Improved Mark 13 (cancelled 1954) Mark 21 – Re-designed variant of Castle Bravo test; Mark 22 – Failed thermonuclear design (Castle Koon device, cancelled April 1954).