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boatdude420 t1_iy8ka37 wrote

Hydrogen bombs are a type of nuke that uses hydrogen to create a fusion reaction (more powerful than fission) not entirely sure but I think you still need a regular fission (think uranium) bomb to create enough energy for that. Hydrogen on its own burns, but not nuclear bomb kinda burns. Think about the Hindenburg, the hydrogen caught fire and it burned, but it wasn’t going off like a nuke.

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The-Protomolecule t1_iy8ld9w wrote

Yes, you’re correct. They’re a 2-stage bomb more or less. A small fission reaction is used to trigger the hydrogen fusion reaction.

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[deleted] t1_iy8mnjx wrote

a set of small fission bombs all denoated simultaneously to create a compression wave to super-compress the hydrogen target.

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DifferentAnon t1_iy9zjna wrote

Bringing up hydrogen bombs when discussing hydrogen engines is pretty disingenuous and fear mongery. Hydrogen itself is very flammable and dangerous in it's own right but is very different and much less dangerous than a hydrogen bomb.

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