What is the difference between the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb?

New statements from North Korea about a hydrogen bomb test are attracting fear and skepticism from politicians and experts. Even if the country is not considered a nuclear superpower, it is accepted that they have some nuclear warheads, even without the missile technology needed to launch them. But what's the difference between the well-known atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb anyway?

It may seem strange, but in fact, both are atomic bombs. What differs them is how each one gets energy from atoms. Also, not all nuclear weapons are made the same way. Although atomic bombs, such as those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, are extremely destructive, hydrogen bombs can be at least a thousand times stronger than their predecessors.

Fission vs. Fusion

The difference between the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb is that one makes nuclear fission and the other fusion.

In the atomic bomb, fission occurs, which is the reaction caused by the shock between a neutron and an unstable nucleus. As a result, we break this core - hence the name "fission", which means division. This process causes a chain reaction in which new neutrons will collide with other unstable nuclei, causing new fissions.

To better understand: take a plate and weigh. Now break it into small pieces and put everything back on the scale. If you left no chips out, the weight of the matter is the same, right? But that is not what happens here. When the nucleus breaks down, an amount of mass turns into a lot of energy!

Returning to the well-known bomb dropped in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, do you imagine the amount of broken matter to cause such destruction and 140, 000 deaths? Only 1 kg!

If you are surprised, know that hydrogen bombs have even greater power: in them, nuclear fusion occurs with the union of nuclei, which give rise to new chemical elements. This is possible through the collision of atoms, which together form another, heavier one. This process releases energy and, depending on it, can generate free neutrons. However, this does not happen naturally, as electromagnetic fields repel each other. It takes high pressure and temperature for the collision to occur.

Does North Korea really have a hydrogen bomb?

Many experts are suspicious of this possibility. For Jeffrey Lewis of the International Institute for Nuclear Studies, thermonuclear weapons are complicated, requiring experimentation and testing. He believes a more technically plausible scenario is that North Korea may be experimenting with fusion fuels such as deuterium and lithium to increase the yield of a fission explosion.

Anyway, nobody wants to pay to see.

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