How does a nuclear bomb work, can it be intercepted and would that trigger an explosion?

NUCLEAR bombs are considered to be the deadliest weapon on the planet – here’s how they work.

At this very moment, there are around 13,080 nuclear warheads in the world, with nearly 90 percent of them belonging to the United States and Russia, according to Statista.

A hydrogen bomb uses the process of fission to then trigger fusion.

What are nuclear warheads?

Nuclear warheads are weapons of mass destruction that can destroy cities and kill millions of people in just a matter of minutes.

They also possess widespread and long-lasting effects on the environment and future generations due to radioactive contamination.

Only two nuclear weapons, dubbed ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fatman,’ have ever been used – both were deployed by the United States in 1945 against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the final stage of World War 2.

Experts estimate the number of causalities in Hiroshima to be between 70,000 to 135,000, and between 60,000 to 80,000 in Nagasaki.

Despite the evident catastrophes associated with nuclear weapons, some countries such as North Korea still carry out nuclear tests regularly.

Nuclear warheads can be deployed on land, at sea, and in the air, enabling both the threat of nuclear war and widespread radioactive contamination.

There are two types of nuclear bombs: Atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs.

Atomic Bomb

The atomic bomb (such as ‘Little Boy’) was developed by American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1942 under a program known as the Manhattan Project.

The atomic bomb is classified as a first-generation nuclear weapon and works via a process called ‘fission,” which is when the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei.

Nuclear fission releases a colossal amount of energy and particles that react with more atoms as it explodes, generating an exponentially growing chain reaction.

The most powerful fuel for an atomic bomb is enriched uranium and plutonium atoms as they are unstable and radioactive.

Hydrogen Bomb

The hydrogen bomb (also known as H-bomb or thermonuclear bomb) is classified as a second-generation nuclear weapon and possesses over a thousand times more destructive power than first-generation atomic bombs.

The weapon was developed by Edward Teller, Stanislaw M. Ulam, and other American scientists in 1952, and has so far never been used in war.

Hydrogen bombs are more compact in size than atomic bombs, have a lower mass, and mainly work via a process called ‘fusion,’ which also incorporates fission.

Nuclear fusion is when two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles (neutrons or protons).

Because the total mass of the resulting single nucleus is less than the mass of the two original nuclei, there is leftover mass which becomes energy.  

Basically, an H-bomb relies on the energy released from an initial fission reaction (typically using depleted uranium) to heat and compress the hydrogen, triggering fusion.

The fusion process can then also trigger further fission reactions, making the impact of the H-bomb even greater.

Nations that currently have hydrogen bombs include the United States, Britain, France, Russia (as the Soviet Union), and China.

Can a nuclear weapon be intercepted?

As of right now, there are weapons designed to counter ballistic missiles, which are often used to deliver nuclear warheads, called anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs).

The ABM system was first constructed by the Soviet Union in 1962 to protect Moscow.

These ABMs work by identifying and tracking an incoming ballistic missile and then launching an interceptor to destroy the missile before it can reach its target. 

This is usually done with a booster rocket that can either crash into the incoming missile to destroy it on impact, or that uses a blast fragmentation warhead to detonate the payload in the incoming missile without causing a nuclear explosion.

It’s important to note that it is actually very hard to intercept an incoming intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and even if the ABM is successful in destroying it, that event could still lead to the plutonium or uranium core falling to the ground, causing a radiation hazard.

An image of an atomic bomb being tested over the oceanGetty Images – Getty

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