Hydrogen+Bomb+-+p2

Hydrogen Bomb, the Basics By, Mack

A Hydrogen Bomb is a release of mass energy from one helium nucleus. Hydrogen bombs are 500 times more powerful than atomic bombs. This helium nucleus is made by the combination of four smaller hydrogen nuclei. This theory was discovered by the German-Austrian physicist Hans Bethe (1906-2005).

Testing of the hydrogen bomb began on November 1, 1952. The blast completely destroyed Eniwetok Atoll, the testing site. The following year the USSR detonated their first H-Bomb. On March 1, 1945, the United States dropped a H-Bomb called the Bravo bomb on Bikini Atoll. The explosion was so powerful that it knocked out all the measuring instruments. The scientists thought the blast would be equivalent to 5 million tons of TNT, but the blast far exceeded the scientists expectations and was actually 15 megatons. The H-bomb was 1,000 times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima a year earlier.

The bombs blast created a fireball more then 3 miles in diameter, followed by a mushroom cloud that reached 20 miles into the sky. The blast could be seen from more than 135 miles away. Ninety minutes after the explosion, gray snow-like flakes began falling from the sky. These ashes later became know the ashes of death, for anyone who was near of touched by the ash was definitely going to get sick. Many people were effected by the ashes and radiation poisoning. Since the test the United states have rewarded people injured by the tests more then 63,127,000 dollars. The most common disorder given to children due to radiation poisoning is leukemia.

The Hydrogen bomb can be destructive in many ways. First, the initial blast, the extreme explosion force will destroy anything in a small radius. Next, the change in air pressure caused by the blast destroys buildings in a larger radius than the initial blast. Also, the extreme heat, which is equivalent to the temperature of the surface of the sun. Gamma radiation then is produced from the fission process and can travel many centimeters into human tissue and organs. Lastly, the nuclear fallout the blast creates large quantities or radioactive dust and dirt. Dust and dirt from the blast can travel thousands of miles and will harm anyone who comes in contact with it.

On April 25 to 26 1986 Unit 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station was being prepared to be shut down for maintenance. The Soviet Union was short of electricity and the plant was built very fast. But Unit 4's output was urgently needed and the order to shutdown was postponed until later in the night. Later when the reactor was shut down and tests were about to be done, the power level got so low that they should according to procedure they should shut down the reactor and do the tests later. But their superior foreman got impatient and decided to go on with the tests. Then they restored normal power to the reactor and the tests were ready to begin. Seconds later things went very bad. There was a large surge of energy and water flow rapidly increased. Workers tried to fix the problem but the workers did not know what had happened. Deputy chief engineer Akimov shouted to Dyatlov that he was going to lower all the control rods into the reactor. There were several loud thuds and the control rods had jammed. Then the reactor exploded. The force was great enough to blow the 2,220 ton steel lid off the top of the core.



Firefighters were immediately on the scene, knee deep in radioactive water, trying to prevent the fire from spreading to another reactor, number three.

After this incidence, people didn't change their lifestyles at all, they still went to school, still went to work. The Soviets knew that the situation was far greater then what the public thought. But they hid this from the people for the first two days so firefighters and mechanics would still do their job. Three men even dived into highly radioactive water; in their street clothes; to open valves on the bottom of the reactor. A few days later TASS (the Soviet government news channel) released the facts and people started learning the truth. The radiation had spread very far. Meters all the way in Sweden started to show the radiation. Trees and animals were infected. The dead trees and animals couldn't be burned because they would spread the radiation into the air. Work began on a sarcophagus that would cover unit 4 so radiation would not keep contaminating the air. There was then worry that the radiation would leak into the earths core. To prevent this minors immediately went underground and pumped liquid nitrogen into the soil, freezing it. To this day there is still an eighteen mile radius exclusion zone around Chernobyl. There are still abandoned cars and homes in this zone, which can only be accessed by scientists.



The hydrogen bomb is a massive weapon of destruction that if used, would be devastating. The disaster at Chernobyl was 100-200 times greater than the affects of Hiroshima, so imagine the devastation of the hydrogen bomb, which is 500 times stronger than the atomic. Then imagine the devastation at Chernobyl times three. The hydrogen is not something that should be taken lightly and should be treated with respect, and should never have to be used.

Works Cited:

Orr, Tamra. The Hydrogen Bomb. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. 2005

Condon, Judith. __Chernobyl__ __an Other Nuclear Accidents__. Austin: Steck-Vaughn Company, 1999.

"Hydrogen bomb." DISCovering Science. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold. Thomson Gale. Cook Memorial Public Library. 6 Feb. 2007 <[|http://find.galegroup.com/srcx/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodId=SRC-1&docId=EJ2103201341&source=gale&srcprod=SRCG&userGroupName=ccscm&version=1.0>.]