Word: bombing
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...bombs (the March 1 explosion may have been the first of them) use chemical forces instead of cold and pressure to keep their volatile hydrogen crammed into a small space. Their main charge is lithium hydride, a chemical compound containing one atom of lithium and one of hydrogen. Since it is a stable solid that needs no unusual treatment, its use eliminates the troubles connected with liquid hydrogen. It is the key to what airmen call a "transportable" H-bomb...
Plain lithium hydride, which can be bought on the open market, is probably not the kind that the bomb-builders use. Natural lithium contains two isotopes, L17 and L16, which behave differently in a fusion reaction. Most guessers believe that L16 is the preferred isotope. The hydrogen in the compound is probably deuterium (H²). So the compound may be described as "lithium-six deuteride...
...guess. A great many reactions are possible, and many must surely take place (see diagram). The main reaction is the combination of L16 with H², forming two atoms of helium (He4) and giving off a flood of energy. Since helium is the final product, the well-designed bomb should produce as much of it as possible, but side reactions are likely. Neutrons from the reacting plutonium are apt to hit lithium atoms, turning them into helium and tritium (H³). Tritium may hit deuterium, yielding helium and a free neutron. The bomb-com-pounders may include other ingredients...
...question: How much original tritium must the dry bomb contain? It may be possible to use none of it except in the boosted detonator, but some guessers believe that a small amount of tritium in the main charge is needed to promote the reaction. It will tend to re-create itself, acting like a chemical catalyst. Other guessers think that free neutrons from the detonator will create enough tritium (by combining with lithium six) to keep the reaction going at full speed...
...even be possible to get along with no tritium in the detonator. A highly efficient fusion bomb may raise the temperature high enough to ignite the lithium hydride. Or perhaps it may, by "implosion." cause the fusion of a core made of deuterium alone...