Word: fissionable
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...that April day in 1954 when the first public image of the hydrogen fireball billowed out of the photographs into the minds of men. Now, his shock behind him, his desperation gone, Churchill gave splendid utterance to the belief that has guided the U.S. ever since Hiroshima: that nuclear fission spells hope, as well as horror, for mankind...
...scientist expected to be able to arrange thermonuclear reactions similar to those they studied in the stars; the required heat seemed unattainable. In 1938 Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered nuclear fission, and their discovery led directly to the Abomb. And fission, with its intense release of energy, also suggested that conditions could be created under which thermonuclear reactions might occur. The late Enrico Fermi in 1942 suggested to Teller that fission could be used to start thermonuclear reaction in deuterium (heavy hydrogen). "After a few weeks of hard thought," Teller recalls, "I decided that deuterium could not be ignited...
AMERICAN SCIENCE AND INVENTION, by Mitchell Wilson (437 pp.; Simon & Schuster; $10), tells in 1,200 pictures and clear, knowledgeable text the mighty success story of U.S. gadgeteers, scientists and inventors, from Ben Franklin and his kite to the nuclear fission boys...
...special cases (e.g., an A-bomb exploding in a harbor and drenching a city with "hot" spray) there was little to fear from radioactivity. The bomb's initial burst of gamma rays affected few people. If the bomb exploded high in the air (the approved position), its radioactive fission products were carried aloft and dissipated in the upper atmosphere. When they sifted down thousands of miles away, they could be detected by sensitive instruments, but their activity was far too weak to damage human wellbeing...
This happy situation has changed radically with the growing quantity of fission bombs and the recent development of the hydrogen (fusion) bomb. Not much has been explained about the radioactivity left in the air by the hydrogen bomb. There is a good chance that each old-style fission bomb, or perhaps a fraction of each, can be upgraded to an H-bomb, 1,000 times as powerful. The fission bomb will act as a detonator, starting the explosion of "fusion" ingredients such as heavy hydrogen and lithium. The end product of the fusion reaction is likely to be rich...