Testing on the Hydrogen Bomb
The hydrogen bomb is a thermonuclear weapon that was developed after the Soviet Union's first successful nuclear test in 1949. It worked by fusing hydrogen isotopes, which made it hundreds of times more powerful than the atom bombs dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagaski in 1945.
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The MIKE Test
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On Nov. 1, 1952, the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb (codename: MIKE) on Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The explosion created a mile-wide crater in its wake.
The BRAVO Test
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On March 1, 1953, the United States tested another hydrogen bomb (codename: BRAVO), this time at Bikini Atoll. It was the largest nuclear weapon the United States has ever tested, and it irradiated more than 200 nearby civilians. One Japanese fisherman died as a result of exposure.
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The Tsar Bomba
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In 1961 the Soviet Union tested the largest nuclear device ever detonated by any nation: a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb nicknamed the Tsar Bomba (King Bomb).
British, Chinese and French Tests
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Britain, China and France all developed and tested hydrogen bombs in the latter half of the 20th century. However, none of those tests came close to matching the yield of the Soviet and American weapons.
Other Nations
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India claims to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, though foreign experts deny that the test yielded enough explosive force to qualify as a thermonuclear detonation. Israel is suspected of possessing thermonuclear weapons, but it has conducted no tests and will not confirm this.
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References
- Photo Credit Futureatlas at CreativeCommons.org
