Word: plutonium
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Fission to Fusion. At the end of World War II, only two ingredients were in the nuclear picture. They were uranium 235 and plutonium, both of which are fissionable, i.e., the addition of a single neutron to the atomic nucleus splits the nucleus, with a vast release of energy. Later a third nuclear ingredient, fissionable U-233, was made out of nonfissionable thorium...
Some physicists are now guessing that the bomb exploded in the Marshall Islands in Operation Castle on March 1, 1954 was a thermofission device. They theorize that it had an old-style atom bomb (U-235 or plutonium) as a detonator at its center. Around this was hydrogen-containing material. Outside this, in turn, was a layer of 11-238. The extreme high temperature of fusion caused the U-238 to explode by thermofission...
...fact," he growled, "that a quantity of plutonium, probably less than would fill this box on the table*. . . would suffice to produce weapons which would give undisputable world domination to any great power which was the only one to have it. There is no absolute defense against the hydrogen bomb . . . [Before its consequences] imagination stands appalled...
Britain's government-owned atomic industries already produce plutonium and uranium 235 for military purposes, but the Fuel Ministry apparently plans to get along without much help from them. Its first four full-sized stations (100,000 to 200,000 kw. each) will burn natural uranium, turning a little of the nonfissionable U-238 into plutonium. When enough plutonium is available, more efficient reactors will use it as fuel, some of them turning comparatively cheap thorium into fissionable U-233. Eventually Britain will build breeder reactors that produce more fuel than they consume...
...plutonium could be made into atom bombs, but Dr. Bhabha is sure that India will never make a bomb. He wants to use all the plutonium in breeder reactors to turn India's thorium into ever-growing amounts of nuclear fuel...