Yes! And actually, the first boosted bomb test was the 225kT George shot. The George shot was designed to prove out the principles of radiation implosion used in the following Mike shot and eventually the Li-D ‘fueled’ Bravo test.
I like Teller’s math that says a nuclear bomb of more than 100 megatons is functionally useless because substantially all of the incremental power just gets sent out to space
he was right in the sense that producing a higher yield is pointless as most of the extra energy is wasted to space so the law of diminishing returns applies as far as a practical weapon is concerned a larger yield won't result in further destruction on the ground so there is no practical purpose making very large warheads.
Teller-Ulam used Radiation Implosion to cause compression. The radiation bottle is an outer casing of high-Z material (usually a thin shell of depleted uranium) which in just about 100 nanoseconds is filled with thermal x-rays which heats the cylindrical tamper of the fusion secondary. That tamper is usually also depleted uranium surrounding a hollow cylinder of lithium deuteride. Down the length of the lithium deuteride is a rod of plutonium-239 to act as a spark plug.
The actual mechanism of compression is caused by the surface of the tamper vaporizing...this causes an almost perfectly symmetric compression shock which delivers compressive energy thousands of times greater and dozens of times faster than high explosives could. By the time the compression wave reaches the plutonium sparkplug...the lithium deuteride is in a state of maximum density...as the plutonium fissions, the fast neutrons released begins to fission the lithium into tritium and helium-4 ( in the case of Li-7, and Tritium and helium-3 in the case of Li-6.) The newly formed tritium and deuterium, already heated to tens of millions degrees, fuse almost instantly, releasing a flood of high speed neutrons...the first of these neutrons aid in fissioning the rest of the sparkplug, and forming additional tritium...the fusion burn is essentially complete by the time 1 microsecond has lapsed...the dense cloud of energetic neutrons slams into the also very dense uranium-238 tamper causing much of it to fission as well... boosting the energy yield of the bomb by 100% or so (essentially doubles energy output.) The physics of this process is a fascinating balance involving statistics, optimization, and reaction rates.
And all of that which you described so eloquently (seriously, it was quite eloquent) is what nullified one of the two big sales pitches of fusion weaponry: That about the fallout risk being all but eliminated. The end result was the overwhelming majority of the yield coming from fission of the depleted uranium and plutonium used to build the thing. With so much fission involved in the design, it no longer was a hydrogen bomb, but a boosted-fission bomb on the order of Greenhouse-George or Greenhouse-Item, only exponentially larger (what I coin "steroided").
All of this happens within a few microseconds.....the shockwave generated by the high explosives is glacial compared to the fission reaction and resultant fusion reaction. The risetime of the initial flash from a fission weapon is less than 100 nanoseconds, or one tenth of a microsecond. At these energy flux levels the temperature/pressure in the case rise to solar core proportions in microseconds. The case only needs to contain all of this for a few microseconds before it vaporizes. The inward directed inertia of the tamper and fuel keeps everything together for the fusion burn to commence. At this point, the matter of the bomb is in a state called degenerate plasma. no atoms, just fundamental particles in a sort of dense fluid, much denser than even gold.
@@BjarneLinetsky Correct. The radiation bottle actually achieves thermal equilibrium within a few hundred nanoseconds...and the low Z carbon foam keeps the radiation channel clear for the X-rays to more or less evenly heat the tamper of the secondary. It is the ablation of the secondary's tamper that causes it to implode...amazing physics.
I really wish people would quit mislabeling the parts of nuclear weapons. The way they're assembled and the individual components aren't a secret anymore.
@@BjarneLinetsky OK I'll bite: which components exactly. Triggers, x-units, explosives, other timing and fusing related circumstances or the weapons grade materials. Which ones of these require a massive industrial base like Hanford or Oak Ridge Y-12?
@@tombryant5029 you left out the huge intellectual infrastructure necessary to calculate and design all of these components. Face it. You can't make a nuclear bomb out of coconuts and coral.
That also is a very popular error that I have tried to correct and have been lambasted for it. The catastrophic fallout had very little to do with the solid lithium-deuteride fuel. Lithium-deuteride simply does not have a complex-enough atomic construction to cause fallout like that. What caused the unexpected high yield and the fallout was the *uranium* tampering shell they constructed around the fusion fuel. The fusion reaction of the Li-D core was more efficient and more powerful than the liquified deuterium used in Ivy-Mike, yes; it managed to cause an even more efficient fission reaction in the uranium shell. Natural uranium cannot undergo fission by conventional-explosive means. However, when you apply the atomic fusion of lithium-deuteride (or even liquid deuterium, as with Ivy Mike), that *IS* enough to cause natural uranium to undergo fission. With as much uranium as they used just to construct the shells of those bombs, it really is no surprise in retrospect that nuclear fission could give off multiple megatons of explosive energy. Now, it's not like this was actually an unknown random factor; the yield of Ivy Mike was also for the most part caused by thermonuclear-boosted *fission:* 73% of that test's yield came from fission of the uranium components used in that bomb. The Castle-Bravo yield was similar: 67% of that yield came from *fission.* Somebody knew this would happen, yet still insisted on carrying on with the use of uranium as tampering material. As a consequence, these weapons were not actually "hydrogen bombs"; they were boosted-fission bombs, like Greenhouse-George or Greenhouse-Item, on steroids. Had they used something more docile to build the tampers, like lead, the Castle-Bravo test and the other Castle tests would have been right on point with the outside estimates of yield. It was the uranium components, not the Li-D components, that made the Bravo test into a runaway nuclear disaster. As a hard lesson learned from that operation, the DoD was then essentially forced to make weapon designs that were more-accurately labeled "hydrogen bombs," designing them with lead tampers instead of uranium. There were a few designs that were deliberately meant to poison (or "salt") regions of land, yes, but that is another topic for another discussion.
@@aloysiusbelisarius9992 now that you mention lead tampers, I have read that tsar bomb initially was meant to yeld 100 megatons through the use of an uranium tamper, but in order to give the airplane barely enough time to escape they nerfed the bomb down to a half: 50 mt by switching to a lead tamper instead.
@@JustRememberWhoYoureWorkingFor Yes...but there was more to it than just the weight and giving the plane escape time. A 50-megaton *fission* explosion would have rendered northern Europe and over half of Russia uninhabitable. I'm not sure how much Khrushchev grumbled over having to accept the modification, but the oligarchy did acknowledge and accept the change. After all, it was still a very big bang.
Lithium-7 was assumed to be inert, and only the Lithim-6 would contribute to the bomb's energy budget. This is fundamentally the case, but on the scale of a thermonuclear bomb, the energy flux occurs in millionths of a second. This caused the Lithium-7 to breakdown into Helium (Tritium) which also fused.
"Pulverized coral radioactive and falling like ash was begin to carry unexpected wind toward unexpected people." Okay, I've had a couple drinks, but like what
"Castle Bravo" was very impressive test indeed but it was not the first H-Bomb! The first was "Ivy Mike"! And "Castle Bravo" crater was not 200m. wide. It was 2000m. wide.
Some Facts, Ivy Mike was the first full-scale test of a hydrogen bomb, It took place on the island of Elugelab in Enewetak Atoll on November 01 1952, this was the Teller-Ulam design, a staged fusion device, the Yield was 10.4 megatons, THX for posting. 🇺🇸
Well, calling it a "hydrogen bomb" is debatable at best, as I indicated; but it was certainly the first-ever thermonuclear test of its kind. Of course, to weaponize it, one would have to load it on a drone freighter ship and steam it into an enemy harber. Not a very practical means of delivery. But on the other hand, deliverability was not a test goal, not yet.
A few years ago i read a story in the Atlantic Monthly called "The Radioactive Boy Scout" about a high school age science nerd who managed to acquire enough knowledge and radioactive materials to make a small, unshielded breeder reactor in his parents backyard garden shed before he was apprehended. From stuff like old radium painted clock dials, collector's minerals, smoke detectors etc. The genie is out of the bottle.......
In theory, there is no limit to the maximum yield of a fusion bomb. But the limits are practical and a more powerful bomb is heavier. Average yields have actually decreased since the 1960's because contrary to popular belief, the primary purpose of nuclear weapons is not to kill cities. Its to kill military targets, city destruction is secondary. Missiles are more accurate now so bomb yields can be smaller due to the margin of error in hitting "the bullseye". Smaller, lighter missiles shooting lighter but more accurately placed warheads is better than the monstrously large ICBMs of the 1960's with multi-megaton warheads used to hit a military base or enemy ICBM site.
This is the "teller-ulam" bomb design. 2:34 The igniters have to extremely accurate to perfectly synchronize. They even measure the wires leading to them to make sure the pulses arrive at the same time. If it fails to explode properly you can end up with an asymmetric blast and a "dirty bomb". In the center of the Pu "pit" is an empty space with a tiny gold neutron emitting "seed", sometimes coated in polonium. They even fuss over the texture of this seed. Its job is to initiate the fission of the imploded Pu pit as it reaches critical mass. The beryllium casing was to reflect neutrons back into the Pu pit during implosion. The lithium deuteride fusion fuel consisted of Li 6 and 7. It was expected that the Li-6 would participate in the explosion but not the Li-7. Fast neutrons however caused the Li-7 to produce more tritium and neutrons than expected causing the much bigger yield. The Pu core in the secondary is called the "spark plug". A thermonuclear bomb is as much a conventional fission bomb as a fusion one. All of this occurs at almost the speed of light. The bomb's materials participate for a tiny fraction of a second.
Are there any calculation available on the timeline of the explosion itself? I.e. - let's assume that plutonium ball ignition (start of neutron, x- and gamma ray production) is t(0), then after what time those products reach lithium deuteride and how long would the positive feedback loop "fission-fusion" last until the destructive explosion occurs?
And the main cars was the scientists. They didn’t realize the lithium atoms ⚛️ was going to change its structure during the explosion they thought it was going to cause a negative effect, but in fact, it caused a positive effect
They are actually less powerful. I think most nuclear weapons today are about 50-500kt not mt. Since weapons of this magnitude don’t make sense for military use. They are just scare tactics and ego science experiments. Weapons the size of Nagasaki are more than capable of leveling cities and Military targets. And testing bombs of this size or larger would probably never happen again with today’s politics. Only an outer space threat would make the use of it possible imo
The “huge explosion” is just a result of the heat output of the combined reactions in air. If you teleported a teaspoon of the suns core into a small bunker on a remote island, you would get the exact same result.
Interesting. So gamma rays, energizing the dickens out of the shell of the metal Uranium, some of the U atoms sort of "fall apart," the bits then tunnel (as they are pretty excited) to the deuterium atoms, where they interact with the deuterium nuclei.
The plasma doesnt compress the cylinder otherwise it would make the case burst open before anything happened. The x and gamma rays are the ones doing the compression by other means.
3:20 amazing styrofoam can bc such an imperative component to a thermonuclear bomb. how did they even figure this out? who thinks to do these things to see what happens?
The Castle primary was more like the bomb detonated over Nagasaki, plutonium implosion type, than the Hiroshima bomb which was a uranium gun type. And the Castle detonation was nowhere even close to the deadliest.
Actually, this was not our first thermonuclear or fusion bomb test. It started with Ivy Mike in late 1952 and had several in between that and Castle Bravo. Not the first, and not the biggest.
The Primary portion of Castle Bravo was like the Fatman Bomb droped on Nagasaki. A Plutonium Implosion weapon. Little Boy used a Gun Barrel design and HEU for its fuel.
Nice but the “Styrofoam to plasma” idea was discounted years ago - started only as speculation by activist Howard Morland in the 1980’s. “expanding foam plasma” is not needed in a device where the primary X-rays slam outward and fill the void with the density of lead.
Thought it wasn't styrofoam in the first place, but some sort of aerogel material codenamed "FOGBANK". Which Pantex somehow lost the formula for, and had to spend years and billions of dollars re-inventing.
low-Z material is required in the radiation case so that it can keep the opaque ablate from obstructing the radiation channel. I can be polyethylene or even Li-6 hydride so that primary's neutrons are captured.
The Tzar Bomb was intended to be a super heavy ICBM warhead: the missile that would have carried it was the UR-500, which became the space launch vehicle known as Proton.
"In theory, the bomb would have had a yield in excess of 100 Mt (418 PJ) if it had included the uranium-238[16] tamper which featured in the design but was omitted in the test to reduce radioactive fallout.[16] As only one bomb was built to completion, that capability has never been demonstrated." It wasn't so much that they scaled it back, they just did not include the uranium-238. The actual, accepted output was 50MT.
Also along with "fussion", the primary was not the same as the device used on Hiroshima, rather it was basically the same as the plutonium fission device used on Nagasaki.
Big bomb. Got me wondering how large the plutonium rod was - "1.3 cm thick hollow cylindrical rod of plutonium" so that component wasn't exactly huge 👀
This is NOT how it (a Teller-Ulam H-bomb) works. I don't remember exactly where I learned how it works but I think it is still classified so I no longer repeat it.
So much missing or glossed over. Why was this blast twice as powerful as planned? How does the actual fusion reaction work (which ties to the first question.) There's much more to how the interstage energy transfer triggers the secondary (direct x-ray compression and tamper ablation recoil.) Could have been much better.
Should have put in why the device was so miscalculated by not understanding the lithium 7 interactions at high mev levels. And as other pointed out Bravo was around 6 or 7 on largest detonations.
Why do they have the people as a size comparison have there arms out? it looks kinda ridiculous, it would look much better and normal if they just stood without doing that or is it just me?
At 1:25 the fission bomb wasn't the same as Hiroshima. Indeed, Hiroshima bomb called Little Boy used uranium 235 not plutonium. Moreover, the mechanism wasn't the same in Little boy because it consisted of an explosive charge projected a block of uranium 235 against another block to reach the critical mass allowing fission to begin. In fact, what is shown at 1:25 is the same mechanism as Fat Boy, the second bomb which was dropped above Nagasaki. Here plutonium 239 was used, and it worked thanks to a compression of the plutonium ball by explosive lenses.
@0:07 - A correction. Bravo was NOT the first Thermonuclear Weapon detonated on March 1, 1954 by United States. The first thermonuclear weapon detonated by US was on November 1, 1952 (Operation Ivy Mike) with a yield of 10.4 megaton TNT. You can definitely say that Bravo was the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever tested by the US. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Mike
Your animation of the fission reaction in the primary is inaccurate. It shows neutrons fissioning fission fragments, which definitely doesn’t happen in a fission bomb.
The Bravo detonation in the Castle test series had an explosive yield of 15 megatons-1,000 times that of the weapon that destroyed Hiroshima and nearly three times the six megatons that its planners estimated.Feb 29, 2024
Was it the BIGGEST in physical size for device... yup. But not biggest in yield. That prize goes to tsar bomba at over 50 MT
tsar bomba was planned to be 100 megatons, but the soviets realised that would be stupid and toned it down to 50
Now compare in 2024 with USA having a 1.21 gigaton design
That's over 1000MT btw
That's what quantum mechanics can do
@@Clancydaenlightened Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence... please provide it....
The Soviet Union actually detonated five warheads larger than Castle Bravo, including a 25MT monster delivered by an ICBM.
They did? On what dates?
@@TrevorSachkoTsar Bomba is very well known as the largest nuke ever detonated.
They detonated the Tsar Bomba 58 MT dropped from an airplane
@@TrevorSachko en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962_Soviet_nuclear_tests
Test 219 was just under 25 MT, detonated over Novaya Zemlya. And there were a handful of shots with yields over 16 MT.
First H-test was Ive Mike, November 1952 with 10.4 MT yield
Mike was a liquid fuelled behemoth of a contraption, Castle Bravo was the first solid fuel test which vaguely resembled a deliverable bomb.
@@keyss78 And allowed the military that was already planning to build liquid type bombs to discontinue that work.
@@keyss78 correct
Yes!
And actually, the first boosted bomb test was the 225kT George shot. The George shot was designed to prove out the principles of radiation implosion used in the following Mike shot and eventually the Li-D ‘fueled’ Bravo test.
Ivy Mike
I like Teller’s math that says a nuclear bomb of more than 100 megatons is functionally useless because substantially all of the incremental power just gets sent out to space
And that's not troublesome?
@@genghisgalahad8465
No? Shooting energy into space isn’t troublesome
he was right in the sense that producing a higher yield is pointless as most of the extra energy is wasted to space so the law of diminishing returns applies as far as a practical weapon is concerned a larger yield won't result in further destruction on the ground so there is no practical purpose making very large warheads.
Not if it’s underwater.
@@jloiben12 It has to pass through the atmosphere, though, right? That would be troublesome to the atmosphere I would think
"the consequences of harnessing nuclear energy"
No. This is the consequences of Misusing nuclear energy.
Don't be a grinch. It's fascinating.
Teller-Ulam used Radiation Implosion to cause compression. The radiation bottle is an outer casing of high-Z material (usually a thin shell of depleted uranium) which in just about 100 nanoseconds is filled with thermal x-rays which heats the cylindrical tamper of the fusion secondary. That tamper is usually also depleted uranium surrounding a hollow cylinder of lithium deuteride. Down the length of the lithium deuteride is a rod of plutonium-239 to act as a spark plug.
The actual mechanism of compression is caused by the surface of the tamper vaporizing...this causes an almost perfectly symmetric compression shock which delivers compressive energy thousands of times greater and dozens of times faster than high explosives could. By the time the compression wave reaches the plutonium sparkplug...the lithium deuteride is in a state of maximum density...as the plutonium fissions, the fast neutrons released begins to fission the lithium into tritium and helium-4 ( in the case of Li-7, and Tritium and helium-3 in the case of Li-6.) The newly formed tritium and deuterium, already heated to tens of millions degrees, fuse almost instantly, releasing a flood of high speed neutrons...the first of these neutrons aid in fissioning the rest of the sparkplug, and forming additional tritium...the fusion burn is essentially complete by the time 1 microsecond has lapsed...the dense cloud of energetic neutrons slams into the also very dense uranium-238 tamper causing much of it to fission as well... boosting the energy yield of the bomb by 100% or so (essentially doubles energy output.) The physics of this process is a fascinating balance involving statistics, optimization, and reaction rates.
@@TyMoore95503 I'd love to see an ultra highspeed video of this reaction. Much easier to visualize these reactions.
And all of that which you described so eloquently (seriously, it was quite eloquent) is what nullified one of the two big sales pitches of fusion weaponry: That about the fallout risk being all but eliminated. The end result was the overwhelming majority of the yield coming from fission of the depleted uranium and plutonium used to build the thing. With so much fission involved in the design, it no longer was a hydrogen bomb, but a boosted-fission bomb on the order of Greenhouse-George or Greenhouse-Item, only exponentially larger (what I coin "steroided").
All of this happens within a few microseconds.....the shockwave generated by the high explosives is glacial compared to the fission reaction and resultant fusion reaction. The risetime of the initial flash from a fission weapon is less than 100 nanoseconds, or one tenth of a microsecond. At these energy flux levels the temperature/pressure in the case rise to solar core proportions in microseconds. The case only needs to contain all of this for a few microseconds before it vaporizes. The inward directed inertia of the tamper and fuel keeps everything together for the fusion burn to commence. At this point, the matter of the bomb is in a state called degenerate plasma. no atoms, just fundamental particles in a sort of dense fluid, much denser than even gold.
@@BjarneLinetsky Correct. The radiation bottle actually achieves thermal equilibrium within a few hundred nanoseconds...and the low Z carbon foam keeps the radiation channel clear for the X-rays to more or less evenly heat the tamper of the secondary. It is the ablation of the secondary's tamper that causes it to implode...amazing physics.
I really wish people would quit mislabeling the parts of nuclear weapons. The way they're assembled and the individual components aren't a secret anymore.
If you want a weapon you need a huge industrial base. That is the real control of proliferation.
@@BjarneLinetskyNot necessarily. Take a look at Pakistan as an example.
@@tombryant5029 I believe that Pakistan may have acquired technology and components from either Russia or China. Same with DPRNK
@@BjarneLinetsky OK I'll bite: which components exactly. Triggers, x-units, explosives, other timing and fusing related circumstances or the weapons grade materials. Which ones of these require a massive industrial base like Hanford or Oak Ridge Y-12?
@@tombryant5029 you left out the huge intellectual infrastructure necessary to calculate and design all of these components.
Face it. You can't make a nuclear bomb out of coconuts and coral.
Here for the comments about the tsar bomba
and Bikini Asholl
They should have known about lithium 6 and 7's cross-sections
( ability to fuse)
Proof that Hindsight is a 20/20 deal
That also is a very popular error that I have tried to correct and have been lambasted for it. The catastrophic fallout had very little to do with the solid lithium-deuteride fuel. Lithium-deuteride simply does not have a complex-enough atomic construction to cause fallout like that.
What caused the unexpected high yield and the fallout was the *uranium* tampering shell they constructed around the fusion fuel. The fusion reaction of the Li-D core was more efficient and more powerful than the liquified deuterium used in Ivy-Mike, yes; it managed to cause an even more efficient fission reaction in the uranium shell. Natural uranium cannot undergo fission by conventional-explosive means. However, when you apply the atomic fusion of lithium-deuteride (or even liquid deuterium, as with Ivy Mike), that *IS* enough to cause natural uranium to undergo fission. With as much uranium as they used just to construct the shells of those bombs, it really is no surprise in retrospect that nuclear fission could give off multiple megatons of explosive energy. Now, it's not like this was actually an unknown random factor; the yield of Ivy Mike was also for the most part caused by thermonuclear-boosted *fission:* 73% of that test's yield came from fission of the uranium components used in that bomb. The Castle-Bravo yield was similar: 67% of that yield came from *fission.* Somebody knew this would happen, yet still insisted on carrying on with the use of uranium as tampering material. As a consequence, these weapons were not actually "hydrogen bombs"; they were boosted-fission bombs, like Greenhouse-George or Greenhouse-Item, on steroids.
Had they used something more docile to build the tampers, like lead, the Castle-Bravo test and the other Castle tests would have been right on point with the outside estimates of yield. It was the uranium components, not the Li-D components, that made the Bravo test into a runaway nuclear disaster. As a hard lesson learned from that operation, the DoD was then essentially forced to make weapon designs that were more-accurately labeled "hydrogen bombs," designing them with lead tampers instead of uranium. There were a few designs that were deliberately meant to poison (or "salt") regions of land, yes, but that is another topic for another discussion.
@@aloysiusbelisarius9992 now that you mention lead tampers, I have read that tsar bomb initially was meant to yeld 100 megatons through the use of an uranium tamper, but in order to give the airplane barely enough time to escape they nerfed the bomb down to a half: 50 mt by switching to a lead tamper instead.
@@JustRememberWhoYoureWorkingFor Yes...but there was more to it than just the weight and giving the plane escape time. A 50-megaton *fission* explosion would have rendered northern Europe and over half of Russia uninhabitable. I'm not sure how much Khrushchev grumbled over having to accept the modification, but the oligarchy did acknowledge and accept the change. After all, it was still a very big bang.
Lithium-7 was assumed to be inert, and only the Lithim-6 would contribute to the bomb's energy budget. This is fundamentally the case, but on the scale of a thermonuclear bomb, the energy flux occurs in millionths of a second. This caused the Lithium-7 to breakdown into Helium (Tritium) which also fused.
Wow you got virtually nothing correct. You got the dates correct at least.
my thoughts excactly
Yep I wouldn’t trust this guy to build my pushbike….😅
"Pulverized coral radioactive and falling like ash was begin to carry unexpected wind toward unexpected people."
Okay, I've had a couple drinks, but like
what
Yeah this was super cringe-worthy. I'm so tired of AI narration.
"Castle Bravo" was very impressive test indeed but it was not the first H-Bomb! The first was "Ivy Mike"! And "Castle Bravo" crater was not 200m. wide. It was 2000m. wide.
Ivy Mike wasn't a bomb, it was a thermonuclear instalation. A monstrosity that could only be delivered "by ship or ox cart"
@@mtthwpnnI’d like to see an ox cart carrying 24 tons of steel…
Yep, a big difference for sure!
Thank you for the clip, it's so fantastic!
Please correct the detail of this video.
Some Facts, Ivy Mike was the first full-scale test of a hydrogen bomb, It took place on the island of Elugelab in Enewetak Atoll on November 01 1952, this was the Teller-Ulam design, a staged fusion device, the Yield was 10.4 megatons, THX for posting. 🇺🇸
Well, calling it a "hydrogen bomb" is debatable at best, as I indicated; but it was certainly the first-ever thermonuclear test of its kind. Of course, to weaponize it, one would have to load it on a drone freighter ship and steam it into an enemy harber. Not a very practical means of delivery. But on the other hand, deliverability was not a test goal, not yet.
this is an AI channel your lucky it even got Castle bravo correct.
You should probably change your inaccurate title about it being the largest nuke ever detonated
This Is The Best Doco On Castle Bravo Yet ! Simple & Easy To Understand !
Ok. I have access to wire and to polystyrene foam. About 1/3 of the way there?
Yep. Now to score some plutonium and depleted uranium. Try Harbor Freight. 🎉
😎
A few years ago i read a story in the Atlantic Monthly called "The Radioactive Boy Scout" about a high school age science nerd who managed to acquire enough knowledge and radioactive materials to make a small, unshielded breeder reactor in his parents backyard garden shed before he was apprehended.
From stuff like old radium painted clock dials, collector's minerals, smoke detectors etc. The genie is out of the bottle.......
1:03 sounds like this is the story on how to overcook your fish!
I love these videos!
Tsar Bomba was the biggest: 50-58 MT
and it was eco friendly, lol (Castle Bravo was very dirty.). Modern warheads are "clean" too.
In theory, there is no limit to the maximum yield of a fusion bomb. But the limits are practical and a more powerful bomb is heavier. Average yields have actually decreased since the 1960's because contrary to popular belief, the primary purpose of nuclear weapons is not to kill cities. Its to kill military targets, city destruction is secondary. Missiles are more accurate now so bomb yields can be smaller due to the margin of error in hitting "the bullseye". Smaller, lighter missiles shooting lighter but more accurately placed warheads is better than the monstrously large ICBMs of the 1960's with multi-megaton warheads used to hit a military base or enemy ICBM site.
The big ICBM is still to kill mega cities in the US.
What about Tsar bomb
it was less powerfull because the Tsar Bomb fireball was 4.5 miles in diameter only but the Castle Bravo was 5 miles :)))))
@@Yegorijbur who had more power
This is the "teller-ulam" bomb design.
2:34 The igniters have to extremely accurate to perfectly synchronize. They even measure the wires leading to them to make sure the pulses arrive at the same time. If it fails to explode properly you can end up with an asymmetric blast and a "dirty bomb".
In the center of the Pu "pit" is an empty space with a tiny gold neutron emitting "seed", sometimes coated in polonium. They even fuss over the texture of this seed. Its job is to initiate the fission of the imploded Pu pit as it reaches critical mass. The beryllium casing was to reflect neutrons back into the Pu pit during implosion.
The lithium deuteride fusion fuel consisted of Li 6 and 7. It was expected that the Li-6 would participate in the explosion but not the Li-7. Fast neutrons however caused the Li-7 to produce more tritium and neutrons than expected causing the much bigger yield.
The Pu core in the secondary is called the "spark plug". A thermonuclear bomb is as much a conventional fission bomb as a fusion one. All of this occurs at almost the speed of light. The bomb's materials participate for a tiny fraction of a second.
How many amps of currents required to detonate the lens?
4:14 Uh..... what? If you're going to use garbage TTS software instead of a real narrator, at least use a script that makes sense.
Are there any calculation available on the timeline of the explosion itself? I.e. - let's assume that plutonium ball ignition (start of neutron, x- and gamma ray production) is t(0), then after what time those products reach lithium deuteride and how long would the positive feedback loop "fission-fusion" last until the destructive explosion occurs?
And the main cars was the scientists. They didn’t realize the lithium atoms ⚛️ was going to change its structure during the explosion they thought it was going to cause a negative effect, but in fact, it caused a positive effect
This is back when nukes were fun.
1 st comment from INDIA LOVE❤❤
If weapons of the 1950’s caused that kind of destruction I can’t imagine today’s weapons. God help us
They are actually less powerful. I think most nuclear weapons today are about 50-500kt not mt. Since weapons of this magnitude don’t make sense for military use. They are just scare tactics and ego science experiments. Weapons the size of Nagasaki are more than capable of leveling cities and Military targets. And testing bombs of this size or larger would probably never happen again with today’s politics. Only an outer space threat would make the use of it possible imo
The “huge explosion” is just a result of the heat output of the combined reactions in air. If you teleported a teaspoon of the suns core into a small bunker on a remote island, you would get the exact same result.
as wicked as the fusion bomb is, the mechanism is genius
I can’t imagine being a witness to that! Amazing!!
love the npcs t-poses
Fun fact: 1 kg of Antimatter would yield a 15 MT detonation
❤Well done Bravo❤
Biggest nuclear bomb ever detonated is the Tsar Bomba. NOT Castle Bravo
In 🇺🇸
Tsar Bomba: “Am I a joke to you?”
Ivy Mike was the first Thermonuclear test
Exactly what I said
@@iitzfizz I didn’t read the comments first my bad
Nicely animated!
You should have also mentioned how fast the reaction occured like you did with your tsar bomb video.
Interesting. So gamma rays, energizing the dickens out of the shell of the metal Uranium, some of the U atoms sort of "fall apart," the bits then tunnel (as they are pretty excited) to the deuterium atoms, where they interact with the deuterium nuclei.
No.
The fission bomb supplies the heat and pressure to bring the deuterium atoms together.
@@80sandretrogubbins25You have no idea how it actually works. The fusion is Deturium-Tritium fusion.
Ivy Mike was the first Thermonuclear detonation
*_love it...great video_***..hope more soon.*
The plasma doesnt compress the cylinder otherwise it would make the case burst open before anything happened. The x and gamma rays are the ones doing the compression by other means.
3:20 amazing styrofoam can bc such an imperative component to a thermonuclear bomb. how did they even figure this out? who thinks to do these things to see what happens?
2nd comment from INDIA 🇮🇳❤❤
😁😆😆😅
@@TeslaBro2 😅
Congratulations and sorry you didnt make 1st.
4:15 “pulverized coral radioactive and falling like ash was begin to carry unexpected wind toward unexpected people”
How big it is as compared to tsar bomba?
Tsar was almost 3 times as powerful.
@@jesperwall839 its crazy to know that 50MT tsar bomba was the cleanest version of the bomb. Now imagine the 100MT
Physically the two devices were similar in physical size.
@@sammyroldan5773 Way more destruction with a cluster of much smaller mirvs.
Vidéo passionnante, pour mes enfants et moi!
Peace from France
A world full of people willing to build and use these monstrous weapons has yet to prove it should not be utterly destroyed.
The Castle primary was more like the bomb detonated over Nagasaki, plutonium implosion type, than the Hiroshima bomb which was a uranium gun type. And the Castle detonation was nowhere even close to the deadliest.
It was a good video. You needed to include why Castle Bravo was a lot stronger than projected
I guess, you didn't watch that far, before commenting.
Err, Castle Bravo wasn't the first thermonuclear weapon detonated by the US. Ivy Mike was the first. As others have already pointed out
Actually, this was not our first thermonuclear or fusion bomb test. It started with Ivy Mike in late 1952 and had several in between that and Castle Bravo. Not the first, and not the biggest.
Tsar Bomba wad the biggest thermo nuclear bomb of mankind ever detonated. It is around 50MT.
😂😂👎🏻🇷🇺
Ignition sequence of the fusion stage is not correctly explained.
Humanity at its best!
The Primary portion of Castle Bravo was like the Fatman Bomb droped on Nagasaki. A Plutonium Implosion weapon. Little Boy used a Gun Barrel design and HEU for its fuel.
The US B41 warhead was 25MT, but we have no public record of test detonations.
Some inconsistencies but, the most important was not mentioned: it was supposed to have an yeld of 6MT. Why was it 15MT?
Nice but the “Styrofoam to plasma” idea was discounted years ago - started only as speculation by activist Howard Morland in the 1980’s. “expanding foam plasma” is not needed in a device where the primary X-rays slam outward and fill the void with the density of lead.
Thought it wasn't styrofoam in the first place, but some sort of aerogel material codenamed "FOGBANK". Which Pantex somehow lost the formula for, and had to spend years and billions of dollars re-inventing.
How/why are you equating the density of x-rays to the density of lead?
Not equating - on detonation the X-Rays emerge with the density of a very heavy metal - like lead.
@@johnwatson3948 why use density and not flux?
low-Z material is required in the radiation case so that it can keep the opaque ablate from obstructing the radiation channel. I can be polyethylene or even Li-6 hydride so that primary's neutrons are captured.
I mean, there were definitely "deadlier" bombs....hell....deadlier nuclear bombs.
The Tzar Bomb was intended to be a super heavy ICBM warhead: the missile that would have carried it was the UR-500, which became the space launch vehicle known as Proton.
Tsar bomb was 58 megatons and it was supposed to be 100 megatons but they scaled it back to be safe.
"In theory, the bomb would have had a yield in excess of 100 Mt (418 PJ) if it had included the uranium-238[16] tamper which featured in the design but was omitted in the test to reduce radioactive fallout.[16] As only one bomb was built to completion, that capability has never been demonstrated." It wasn't so much that they scaled it back, they just did not include the uranium-238. The actual, accepted output was 50MT.
Also along with "fussion", the primary was not the same as the device used on Hiroshima, rather it was basically the same as the plutonium fission device used on Nagasaki.
Big bomb. Got me wondering how large the plutonium rod was - "1.3 cm thick hollow cylindrical rod of plutonium" so that component wasn't exactly huge 👀
This is NOT how it (a Teller-Ulam H-bomb) works. I don't remember exactly where I learned how it works but I think it is still classified so I no longer repeat it.
the shrimp device??
Hard to Believe ..... that my styrofoam cup had that much P O W E R !!!! /s
So much missing or glossed over. Why was this blast twice as powerful as planned? How does the actual fusion reaction work (which ties to the first question.) There's much more to how the interstage energy transfer triggers the secondary (direct x-ray compression and tamper ablation recoil.) Could have been much better.
there was also no mention of the plywood tube that was built from the shot cab to the test island about 1/2 mile away.
Castle Bravo was not the first Hydrogen bomb. Ivy Mike was
Very interesting 😮
But I glad of this video 🫡
You know things got out hand when we had a bomb that used an atomic bomb as a detonator.
Well that was complete word salad....
The Tsar Bomba was the biggest ever exploded thermonuclear bomb at 50 Mt!!
But what caused the 6 megaton bob to yield 15 megatons? That was a flaw in the design, wasn't it?
there is no such thing as a 6 megaton bob.
Just think, with all that styrofoam it was a really advanced pool toy.
Also tzar bomba was a three stage device, all other thermonuclear devices are a two stage
primary was was a fission bomb similar to the device detonated above Nagasaki
Should have put in why the device was so miscalculated by not understanding the lithium 7 interactions at high mev levels.
And as other pointed out Bravo was around 6 or 7 on largest detonations.
World's biggest nuclear bomb ever detonated. Tsar Bomba enters the conversation...
Is it TRUE those islands to this day are still radioactive?
This video implies that a plutonium atom gets split into two plutonium atoms. Which is completely false.
Why do they have the people as a size comparison have there arms out? it looks kinda ridiculous, it would look much better and normal if they just stood without doing that or is it just me?
It's a man thing they love to exaggerate. Example their height and length. 😏
just you.
Wasn’t the Tzar bomb physically bigger?? I know the yield was 55 MT far more
At 1:25 the fission bomb wasn't the same as Hiroshima. Indeed, Hiroshima bomb called Little Boy used uranium 235 not plutonium. Moreover, the mechanism wasn't the same in Little boy because it consisted of an explosive charge projected a block of uranium 235 against another block to reach the critical mass allowing fission to begin.
In fact, what is shown at 1:25 is the same mechanism as Fat Boy, the second bomb which was dropped above Nagasaki. Here plutonium 239 was used, and it worked thanks to a compression of the plutonium ball by explosive lenses.
there more mistakes in this video depiction of the bomb
@@phdnk Yes I'm glad i'm not the only one who noticed it
The Russian Tzar Bombe was the highest yield nuclear weapon ever detonated, with an explosive force of 57 megatons & a blast radius of 45km.
Russia made far stronger bomb, which was even smaller in size(usable by airforce)
I'm pretty sure its called Tsar Bomba
But Castle-Bravo was first.
Not a word about why the yield was so high? I know the answer, but saying it was higher than expected should have been followed by the reason why.
Big in size or in explosion???
@0:07 - A correction. Bravo was NOT the first Thermonuclear Weapon detonated on March 1, 1954 by United States. The first thermonuclear weapon detonated by US was on November 1, 1952 (Operation Ivy Mike) with a yield of 10.4 megaton TNT. You can definitely say that Bravo was the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever tested by the US.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Mike
Fun fact, the entire yield of this weapon would only sustain the global energy consumption for 54 minutes.
Upload the world's tallest skyscraper in the the Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates
I thought the tsar bombax at over 50 MT was the most destructive in radiation fall out being bigger of course?
amazing video
so a hydrogen bomb mimics how the sun works, so fusion is much more powerful than fission
You misspelled deuteride.
Your animation of the fission reaction in the primary is inaccurate. It shows neutrons fissioning fission fragments, which definitely doesn’t happen in a fission bomb.
No way they killed another Japanese with this nuke
The Bravo detonation in the Castle test series had an explosive yield of 15 megatons-1,000 times that of the weapon that destroyed Hiroshima and nearly three times the six megatons that its planners estimated.Feb 29, 2024
Not accurate.