NUCLEAR WEAPON TESTING
Nuclear weapon testing are experiments to know how does a define nuclear machine works,
how effective it is, and to know the amount of explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Testing
this weapons can yield information about the behaviour under various conditions and how
structures behave when subjected to nuclear explotions. This testings are ussually done
underwater, underground or outer in the atmosphere, most of times occurs on desserts so
they won't cause any damage.
Virtually any combination of plutonium isotopes can be used to make a weapon of nuclear
category. Not all combinations are equally efficient.
The most common isotope used for testing and creating weapons is plutonioum-239; it is
produced when the most common isotope of uranium, uranium-238, absorbs a neutron and
then quickly decays in plutonium. This isotope of plutonium are composed of diverse isotopes
that some can be fisible. For producing a military device you require the percentage of the
fisionable isotopes present on the material to be the order of 93%. It is the most useful in
creating nuclear weapons, and it is produced in varying quantities in all operating nuclear
reactors. Uranium and plutonium have components of diverse isotopes As fuel in a reactor it is
exposed to longer periods of neutron irradiation, higher isotopes of plutonium build up some
of the plutonium absorbs additional neutrons, creating plutonium-240, plutonium-241 and so
on. Plutonium -238 also builds up from a chain of neutron absorptions and radioactive decays
starting at uranium-235. Plutonium contains high quantity of fisionable material. Plutonium in
reactors is produced in the nucleus when a reactor of the uranium-238 is iradiated with
neurons. An example of a weapon that was tested with isotopes were the bombs made at the
Manhattan Project (or the Atomic Bomb). The first weapon to be tested was the Nagasaki
Bomb called Fat Man. This 2 last bombs used also plutonium and uranium.
Other bomb that was created was the hydrogen bomb, that is by far, the most destructive
bomb on the entire world in all times. It is the most powerful type of nuclear bomb, as much
as 25,000 times the yield of the nuclear bombs that was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
(in Japan). Unlike conventional atom bombs (also known as A-bombs), which release energy by
fissioning heavy atomic nuclei like uranium and plutonium, a hydrogen bomb releases energy
by fusing together light nuclei like tritium or deuterium, converting even more matter into
energy. This bomb in easier terms works by fusing the nuclei of various hydrogen isotopes into
helium nuclei. A hydrogen bomb uses nuclear fusion, just as the sun (the sun also uses nuclear
fusion). United States and Russia have as a vertebral column the hydrogen bombs. This work
bombs, using a design of 2 steps in the one a fission bomb "primary" is detonated using the
conventional implosotion method, which then compresses a fusion fuel "secondary" and
ignites a uranium "spark plug" which fissions and subjects the fusion fuel to the heat necessary
to begin a chain reaction. The light nuclei fuse together into heavier elements, releasing
tremendous energy from the strong nuclear force that binds their constituent particles
together.
The result of using fusion rather than fission, the bomb yield is much, much higher. The first
time the principle of a hydrogen bomb was tested was on 9 May 1951 by the United States
military, during the George shot of Operation Greenhouse at the Pacific Proving Grounds.
The first hydrogen bomb was called Ivy Mike, dropped on Enewetak Atoll (on the Pacific) on
November, 1952, as part of the Operation Ivy. The explotion of the bomb was iquals to 10.4
megatons of TNT (like 450 times powerful than the bomb dropped at Nagasaki). The Castle
Bravo shot is the most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested by the United States, with a yield
of 15 megatons.
Nuclear weapons are important for countries that fight for power so they can have something
efficient with the one they can make attacks to other enemy countries.
Some other isotopes that can be used for the design, fabrication and testing of nuclear
weapons are:
Plutonium-240, Plutonium-238 and Americium-241