Uranium Hydride Bomb

The uranium hydride bomb was a variant design of the atomic bomb, that was first suggested by Robert Oppenheimer in 1939 and advocated and tested by Edward Teller. It used deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, as a neutron moderator in a U235-deuterium compound. The chain reaction is a slow nuclear fission (see neutron temperature). Bomb efficiency is very adversely affected by the cooling of neutrons since it delays the reaction.

Two uranium hydride bombs are known to have been tested, the Ruth and Ray test explosions in Operation Upshot-Knothole. The tests produced a yield comparable to 200 tons of TNT each; both tests were considered to be fizzles. All other nuclear weapons programs have relied on fast neutrons in their weapons designs.