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mfb- t1_izoooy4 wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in What is the difference between atomic, nuclear and hydrogen bombs? by something-stupid2134

That's typical, but it depends on the design. The Tsar Bomba got over 95% of its 50 MT yield from fusion.

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Oppie8645 t1_izopvy7 wrote

Oh really? That’s neat, I remember going into my nuclear weapons classes with the idea that thermonuclear bombs used fusion as their main energy source, and then quickly learning otherwise so that lesson stuck with me, from what I understood, while fusion is more energy dense, it’s way easier to pack a bunch of fissile material together than it is to get a bunch of fusion material, and to increase yield they just made bigger cores or warheads with more cores, how did they manage it with Tsar Bomba?

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mfb- t1_izp1kt9 wrote

A three-stage design: fission -> fusion -> fusion.

The original design had an uranium tamper which would have added another 50 MT from fission, but vastly increased fallout (and likely killed the crew dropping the weapon).

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