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.
Read more about Uranium Hydride Bomb: Theory, 1953 Tests
Famous quotes containing the word bomb:
“There are no accidents, only nature throwing her weight around. Even the bomb merely releases energy that nature has put there. Nuclear war would be just a spark in the grandeur of space. Nor can radiation “alter” nature: she will absorb it all. After the bomb, nature will pick up the cards we have spilled, shuffle them, and begin her game again.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)