This is true...while I can appreciate a big boom being very exciting..some would say that having made big bangs, it becomes more fun, to see what you can do with little ones, which is why shaped charges with PE is so much fun....being able to sheer inch thick steel with small amounts of PE for example is good fun..or puching a hole (a perfectly round hole) through steel like that..etc...is apparently good fun...
Thing s about Fission...its not too efficient...even if you use the Implosion method of detonation rather than the Gun Trigger method described by Seph...you still only get about 20% efficiency...now..Fusion is a different story...Fusion requires two gasses..now one of these gasses depletes quite rapidly so its shelf life is limited by its half life, so to speak...so what you need to do..is one of th gasses can be combined with Lithium, so that it can be stored like that (Deutrium gas) then you still need your other gas (Tritium)..now, a FISSION reaction gives off a whole load of neutrons which, when fired at Lithium (where your also keeping your Deutrium) produces..you've guessed it, Tritium!
but, your not ready to go yet, coz now youve got your two gasses, you need to compress and heat them loads...which funnily enough is also taken care of by your basic FISSION reaction, as they give off loads of X-Rays as well.
So..what you do is you put a little neutron generator, in the middle of a ball of Plutonium 239...then around the outside of that is a load of high explosive...
So.you detonate you FISSION bomb..this gives off loads of X-Rays which fly around inside your Bomb casing...these heat up your U238 tamper inside which is your Lithium Deutrerate and a hollow Plutonium 239 rod...now as it heats up it squeezes the Lithium Deuterate..the compression shockwaves from this, initiate another FISSION reaction in the Plutonium, which makes it give of radiation, heat and neutrons...the neutrons hit the Lithium Deuterate and make Tritium...now its pretty hot and pretty preassurised in this bomb casing, which means that the Tritium and Deutrium can combine via FUSION which gives off even more heat, radiation and neutrons...the neutrons form this reaction, mens that more FISSION occurs with the remaining parts of the U238 Tamper and Sheild...now the bomb cassing cant really take any more than this..and after suffering for a scathing 600 billionths of a second..the thing goes FLASH! KABOOOM! and does its naughty thing....
So this bomb prodeuces like a 10 000 Kilotonne yeild which is quite a lot..700 times more powerful than the Litttle Boy Fission bomb...its all getting a bit scarry...an you imagine what 300 million degrees C feels like? Nasty...and then youve got the blast from the explosion, which, if you werent close enough to get vapourised, is gonna shake you down big stylee.
Next..time travel...
