North Korea nuclear bomb test: What’s the difference between a hydrogen and atomic bomb? And why is it so worrying?
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.North Korea has announced that it has tested a hydrogen bomb for the first time. It has run nuclear tests in the past — but the international reaction has been much more panicked this time than before.
Both atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs are kinds of nuclear bombs, meaning that the energy comes from nuclear reactions. But the way that they actually release that huge amount of energy is different — and leads to massive differences in the power that is unleashed when they are set off.
The big difference is that atomic bombs use nuclear fission, which splits a bigger atom into two smaller ones, to create their energy. Hydrogen bombs use fusion, which is done by fusing two or more atoms into a bigger one.
Hydrogen bombs have a fission weapon inside too, which is used to trigger the energy release from the fusion part of the bomb. That is needed because fusion weapons need to be triggered by a huge amount of energy — which can only be unleashed by an atomic bomb.
They get their name from the hydrogen that is used in the fusion.
Because of the way that they are made, hydrogen bombs are usually much more powerful than their atomic counterparts.
That is why people are so worried about North Korea’s announcement — it has already launched atomic bombs, but this is the first time that it has tested a hydrogen one.
North Korea did its first known nuclear test in 2006, and has done two more since.
The massive power of a hydrogen bomb is also one of the reasons that some analysts are sceptical of the concerns. Detonating such a weapon underground should be enough to cause a huge quake — but the impact was on a scale that could have been generated by an atomic bomb, and may have been less powerful than the one dropped in Hiroshima.
But North Korea said that the bomb was “miniaturised”, which could mean that it was downsized to make it have about the power of an atomic bomb.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments