Word: tritium
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...Tritium & Lithium. Just what ingredients will be used and how they will be proportioned is, of course, a top military secret. But the general principles are known to many competent physicists, including the Russians...
...ingredient will be tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen which was discussed guardedly in the latest report of the Atomic Energy Commission. The nucleus of tritium has one proton and two neutrons. When it is struck by a highspeed proton (a nucleus of ordinary hydrogen), the two combine into helium and yield a great jolt of energy (see chart...
...neutrons and protons. Another ingredient will probably be lithium, which has three protons and four neutrons in its nucleus. When joined by a proton, lithium turns into two helium nuclei. Lithium 6 (an isotope of lithium with three protons and three neutrons) may be used too. It combines with tritium to give two helium nuclei plus a free neutron...
...ingredients, and probably others, will be arranged advantageously around the uranium, which will act as a detonator. The hydrogen isotopes are thin gases and hard to package, so they will probably be used in the form of chemical compounds. Lithium hydride, which may combine two desirable ingredients (lithium and tritium) in a single compound, would be handy for this purpose. Other tricks will be used to pack more hydrogen isotopes closely around the uranium...
...ingredient tritium (hydrogen 3) is radioactive and is excessively rare in nature, but it is not hard to make. One method is to bombard lithium 6 with neutrons in a uranium pile. The reaction yields tritium and helium, which can be separated by simple chemistry. This job could be done in the plutonium-making piles at Hanford, but probably will be done in a special pile built without difficulty for the purpose...