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596L
596L (''CHIC-3'' by US intelligence) was the third nuclear weapon Nuclear test, test conducted by the People's Republic of China. Detonated on May 9, 1966, at Lop Nur, it was the first Chinese test to use thermonuclear reactions in a layer cake design, and yielded 220 kilotons of TNT. As part of the Two Bombs, One Satellite project, it was conducted as a physics experiment to verify computational simulation for China's development of true (multi-stage) thermonuclear weapons. Design The device was named 596L as it used a similar fission core to the first Chinese nuclear test, the implosion bomb Project 596, but with the addition of Lithium deuteride, [L]ithium deuteride thermonuclear fuel. This fuel was produced at a production plant in Baotou, constructed with Soviet assistance from 1958. During 1961 and 1962 the Chinese thermonuclear weapons program was limited to general theoretical research. In 1963, scientists led by Peng Huanwu extensively investigated the ''sloika'' or la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Layer Cake Design
Nuclear weapons design are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three existing basic design types: # Pure fission weapons are the simplest, least technically demanding, were the first nuclear weapons built, and so far the only type ever used in warfare, by the United States on Empire of Japan, Japan in World War II. # Boosted fission weapons are fission weapons that use nuclear fusion reactions to generate high-energy neutrons that accelerate the fission chain reaction and increase its efficiency. Boosting can more than double the weapon's fission energy yield. # Staged thermonuclear weapons are arrangements of two or more "stages", most usually two, where the weapon derives a significant fraction of its energy from nuclear fusion (as well as, usually, nuclear fission), . The first stage is typically a boosted fission weapon (except for the earliest thermonuclear weapons, which used a pure fission ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Project 639
Test No. 6 is the codename for China's first full-scale test of a two-staged thermonuclear device, on 17 June 1967, yielding 3.3 megatons of TNT. It followed the first two-stage thermonuclear test, at a smaller 122 kt yield, in December 1966. It was the sixth nuclear test that was carried out by the People's Republic of China, and represented the completion of the "second bomb" i.e. thermonuclear bomb component of the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" program. With these two tests, China became the fourth nation to develop thermonuclear weapons, following the US, USSR, and UK. Development Background The goal of China was to produce a thermonuclear device of at least a megaton in yield that could be dropped by an aircraft or carried by a ballistic missile. Several explosions to test thermonuclear weapon designs, characteristics and yield boosting preceded the thermonuclear test. China was motivated to pursue nuclear weapons in part due to the First and Second Taiwan Strait Cri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jetter Cycle
Castle Bravo was the first in a series of high-yield thermonuclear weapon design tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as part of ''Operation Castle''. Detonated on 1 March 1954, the device remains the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the United States and the first lithium deuteride-fueled thermonuclear weapon tested using the Teller–Ulam design. Castle Bravo's yield was , 2.5 times the predicted , due to unforeseen additional reactions involving lithium-7, which led to radioactive contamination in the surrounding area. Radioactive nuclear fallout, the heaviest of which was in the form of pulverized surface coral from the detonation, fell on residents of Rongelap and Utirik atolls, while the more particulate and gaseous fallout spread around the world. The inhabitants of the islands were evacuated three days later and suffered radiation sickness. Twenty-three crew members of the Japanese fishing vessel ''Daigo Fukuryū Maru'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fusion Neutron
The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938, the first self-sustaining nuclear reactor (Chicago Pile-1, 1942) and the first nuclear weapon (Trinity, 1945). Neutrons are found, together with a similar number of protons in the nuclei of atoms. Atoms of a chemical element that differ only in neutron number are called isotopes. Free neutrons are produced copiously in nuclear fission and fusion. They are a primary contributor to the nucleosynthesis of chemical elements within stars through fission, fusion, and neutron capture processes. Neutron stars, formed from massive collapsing stars, consist of neutrons at the density of atomic nuclei but a total mass more than the Sun. Neutron properties and interactions are described by nuclear physics. Neutrons are not elementary particles; each is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fast Fission
Fast fission is fission that occurs when a heavy atom absorbs a high-energy neutron, called a fast neutron, and splits. Most fissionable materials need thermal neutrons, which move more slowly. Fast reactors vs. thermal reactors Fast neutron reactors use fast fission to produce energy, unlike most nuclear reactors. In a conventional reactor, a moderator is needed to slow down the neutrons so that they are more likely to fission atoms. A fast neutron reactor uses fast neutrons, so it does not use a moderator. Moderators may absorb a lot of neutrons in a thermal reactor, and fast fission produces a higher average number of neutrons per fission, so fast reactors have better neutron economy making a plutonium breeder reactor possible. However, a fast neutron reactor must use relatively highly enriched uranium or plutonium at the reactor startup so that the neutrons have a better chance of fissioning atoms. Fissionable but not fissile Some atoms, notably uranium-238, do not usua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orange Herald
Orange Herald was a British nuclear weapon, tested on 31 May 1957. It used 117 kg of highly enriched uranium, more than any other nuclear weapon built or tested, and yielded 720 kilotons. It was intended as a boosted fission weapon, using a small quantity of lithium deuteride and tritide in the core, but it is thought this contributed either nothing or a very small fraction to the yield. This would make it either the largest ever pure fission weapon or boosted fission weapon. Technical Orange Herald was a fusion boosted British fission nuclear weapon (called a core-boosted device by the British), comprising a U-235 core containing a small amount of lithium deuteride ( LiD). 'Herald' was suitable for mounting on a missile, utilizing 117 kg of U-235. However, Britain's annual production of U-235 was only 120 kg at this time, which would have made such weapons rare and very expensive. Two versions were designed - an "Orange Herald Large" with an overall diameter of 39&n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yu Min (physicist)
Yu Min (; 16 August 1926 – 16 January 2019) was a prominent Chinese nuclear physicist. He was an academic of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), a lead nuclear weapon designer in the Ninth Academy, and a recipient of Two Bombs, One Satellite Achievement Medal. Though he personally refused to accept the title, he is honored as “the father of heChinese Hydrogen Bomb”. Yu was posthumously bestowed the Medal of the Republic, the highest honorary medal of the People's Republic of China, in September 2019. Life He was born in Tianjin in August 1926. He was famous for his excellent performances in Yaohua High School. Later he was admitted by Department of Electrical engineering of Peking University, however, out of the passion for the physical theories, he transferred into Department of Physics to work on theory. From 1949, Yu started his postgraduate research in the Department of Physics of Peking University, and also served as a teaching assistant. In 1951, he became an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tritium
Tritium () or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of ~12.33 years. The tritium nucleus (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of the common isotope hydrogen-1 (''protium'') contains one proton and no neutrons, and that of non-radioactive hydrogen-2 ('' deuterium'') contains one proton and one neutron. Tritium is the heaviest particle-bound isotope of hydrogen. It is one of the few nuclides with a distinct name. The use of the name hydrogen-3, though more systematic, is much less common. Naturally occurring tritium is extremely rare on Earth. The atmosphere has only trace amounts, formed by the interaction of its gases with cosmic rays. It can be produced artificially by irradiation of lithium or lithium-bearing ceramic pebbles in a nuclear reactor and is a low-abundance byproduct in normal operations of nuclear reactors. Tritium is used as the energy source in radio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lop Nur
Lop Nur or Lop Nor (, , from an Oirat Mongolic name meaning "Lop Lake", where "Lop" is a toponym of unknown origin) is a now largely dried-up salt lake formerly located within the ''Lop Depression'' in the eastern fringe of the Tarim Basin in the southeastern portion of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, northwestern China, between the Taklamakan and Kumtag deserts. Administratively, the lake is in Lop Nur town (), also known as Luozhong () of Ruoqiang County, which in its turn is part of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. The lake system, into which the Tarim River and Shule River drain from the west and east respectively, is the last remnant of the historical post-glacial Tarim Lake, which once covered more than in the Tarim Basin but had progressively shrunk throughout the Holocene due to rain shadowing by the Tibetan Plateau. Lop Nur is hydrologically endorheic, it is landbound and has no outlet, and has relied largely on meltwater runoffs from the Tiansh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teller-Ulam Design
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lower mass, or a combination of these benefits. Characteristics of nuclear fusion reactions make possible the use of non-fissile depleted uranium as the weapon's main fuel, thus allowing more efficient use of scarce fissile material. Its multi-stage design is distinct from the usage of fusion in simpler boosted fission weapons. The first full-scale thermonuclear test (Ivy Mike) was carried out by the United States in 1952, and the concept has since been employed by at least the five recognized nuclear-weapon states and UNSC permanent members: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, and France. The design of all thermonuclear weapons is believed to be the ''Teller–Ulam configuration'', in which a fission bomb primary stage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RDS-6s
RDS-6s (; American codename: "Joe 4") was the first Soviet attempted test of a thermonuclear weapon that occurred on August 12, 1953, that detonated with an energy equivalent to 400 kilotons of TNT. RDS-6 utilized a scheme in which fission and fusion fuel (lithium-6 deuteride) were " layered", a design known as the ''Sloika'' (, named after a type of layered puff pastry) or the so-called layer cake design, model in the Soviet Union. A ten-fold increase in explosive power was achieved by a combination of fusion and fission, yet it was still 26 times less powerful than the Ivy Mike device tested by the US in 1952. A similar design was earlier theorized by Edward Teller, but never tested by the US, as the "Alarm Clock". Description The Soviet Union started studies of advanced nuclear bombs and a hydrogen bomb, code named RDS-6, in June 1948. The studies would be done by KB-11 (usually referred to as Arzamas-16, the name of the town) and FIAN. The first hydrogen bomb design wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
