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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.
Documents declassified and released into the public domain in 2012 disclose that ET.317 was a warhead that used the fission-fusion-fission process, where a boosted-fission device codenamed Jennie triggered a fusion secondary codenamed Reggie [1] which in turn was encased in U-238 depleted uranium. [2]
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 ...
A W31 Y2 nuclear warhead undergoing maintenance. The W31 was an American nuclear warhead used for two US missiles and as an atomic demolition munition.. The W31 was produced from 1959, with the last versions phased out in 1989.
The W40 nuclear warhead was an American fusion-boosted fission nuclear warhead developed in the late 1950s and which saw service from 1959 to 1972.. The W40 design was reportedly the common Python primary or fission core used by the US B28 nuclear bomb, W28 nuclear warhead, and W49 nuclear warhead.
Conducted on May 25, 1951, Item was the first test of an actual boosted fission weapon, nearly doubling the normal yield of a similar non-boosted weapon.In this test, deuterium-tritium (D-T) gas was injected into the enriched uranium core of a nuclear fission bomb.
The Mark 5 and W5 were pure fission weapons. There were at least four basic models of core design used, capable of compatibility with at least eight different core "capsule" designs (which themselves were compatible with many other weapons of the era). [1] Sub-variants with yields of 6, 16, 55, 60, 100, and 120 kilotons have been reported.