Fusion Boosting
If a deuterium-tritium mixture is placed at the center of the device to be compressed and heated by the fission explosion, a fission yield of 250 tons is sufficient to cause D-T fusion releasing high-energy fusion neutrons which will then fission much of the remaining fission fuel. This is known as a boosted fission weapon. 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 of course this does not test the boosting process itself.
Read more about this topic: Fizzle (nuclear Test)
Famous quotes containing the word fusion:
“The sadistic person is as dependent on the submissive person as the latter is on the former; neither can live without the other. The difference is only that the sadistic person commands, exploits, hurts, humiliates, and that the masochistic person is commanded, exploited, hurt, humiliated. This is a considerable difference in a realistic sense; in a deeper emotional sense, the difference is not so great as that which they both have in common: fusion without integrity.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)