Word: thermonuclear
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...principle divide every nuclear charge into four relatively independent systems: electronic, ballistic, atomic and (for a hydrogen device) thermonuclear. The reliability of the first three systems can be confirmed by laboratory tests supplemented by experiments in which a low-yield fission or fusion reaction releases a small quantity of neutrons, which can be measured by a counter close to the charge to be tested. The fourth system -- thermonuclear -- does not require testing in the majority of cases, since its reliability may be established by analogy to previously tested charges based on the same physical and design principles. At the same...
While arguments with the doctors went on, worse things began. On July 3, 1983, Izvestia ran a letter from four academicians replying to Andrei's article in Foreign Affairs, "The Dangers of Thermonuclear War." Though Andrei stressed "the absolute inadmissibility of nuclear war" and called for "complete nuclear disarmament based on strategic parity in conventional weapons," the Izvestia letter charged that Sakharov "calls for nuclear blackmail directed against his own country." A flood of letters began, as many as 132 one day, that berated and maligned Sakharov. Soon, the magazine Smena published an article by Yakovlev expanding on what...
...reporting on the little-known incident last week, after having sifted through documents newly made available by the Freedom of Information Act, the Albuquerque Journal said conventional explosives used in the bomb's trigger did detonate but failed to set off a thermonuclear blast. A Defense Department official sought to put the best possible light on what could have been a calamity by saying the failure of the bomb to explode "confirms the efficacy of the safety devices...
With its black-tinted panels and pulsing red indicator lights, it bears a striking resemblance to Joshua, the fictional computer that plays chess and thermonuclear war in the movie WarGames. But this is the real thing. Inside a 5-ft. Lexon plastic cube is a powerful new computer called the Connection Machine, which not only looks different from most mainframes, it is different...
...limited ability to respond to nuclear accidents," says Dr. Robert Gale, 40, a bone-marrow-transplant expert from UCLA who helped Soviet counterparts treat Chernobyl victims. "If we are very hard pressed to deal with 300 cases, it should be evident how inadequate our response would be in a thermonuclear...