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High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
How does a nuclear bomb explode?
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[QUOTE="mfb, post: 5786145, member: 405866"] Typically nuclear weapons are ignited while they are above the ground, that increases the damage. For the explosion itself it does not matter where the bomb is. A pile of uranium or plutonium (of the right type) that is large and compact enough will make a chain reaction, where one fission triggers more than one subsequent fission process until a large part of the nuclei are fissioned and a huge amount of energy has been released. When stored, you need the uranium/plutonium in the bomb - but you have to keep it separated so it doesn't start a chain reaction. To "ignite" a weapon, chemical explosives are triggered, they push the material together and compress it. When the material is maximally compressed, a few neutrons are shot into the material to start the chain reaction. Fusion weapons (thermonuclear weapons) use a fission bomb to heat up the hydrogen that starts fusion once it is hot enough. [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon]Wikipedia explains all that in more detail[/url]. [/QUOTE]
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High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
How does a nuclear bomb explode?
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