As opposed to the atomic bomb, the kind dropped on Japan in the
closing days of World War II, the hydrogen bomb, or so-called “superbomb” can
be far more powerful, experts say, by 1,000 times or more.
The announcement on
Wednesday from North Korea that it had carried out a nuclear test brought to
the frontlines of global attention a phrase not often heard since the Cold War
“the H-bomb”.
As
opposed to the atomic bomb, the kind dropped on Japan in the closing days of
World War II, the hydrogen bomb, or so-called “superbomb” can be far more
powerful, experts say, by 1,000 times or more.
North
Korea’s first three nuclear tests, from 2006 to 2013, were A-bombs on roughly
the same scale as the ones used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which together
killed more than 200,000 people. Pyongyang announced on Wednesday that it had
detonated its first H-bomb; while seismic data supported the claim of a large
explosion, there was no immediate way to confirm the type.
Atomic
bombs rely on fission, or atom-splitting, just as nuclear power plants do. The
hydrogen bomb, also called the thermonuclear bomb, uses fusion, or atomic
nuclei coming together, to produce explosive energy. Stars also produce energy
through fusion.
“Think
what’s going on inside the sun,” says Takao Takahara, professor of
international politics and peace research at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo.
“In theory, the process is potentially infinite. The amount of energy is huge”.
The
technology of the hydrogen bomb is more sophisticated, and once attained, it is
a greater threat. They can be made small enough to fit on a head of an intercontinental
missile.
“That
the bomb can become compact is the characteristic, and so this means North
Korea has the U.S. in mind in making this H-bomb announcement,” says Tatsujiro
Suzuki, professor at the Research Centre for Nuclear Weapons Abolition at
Nagasaki University.
But the
H-bomb requires more technology in control and accuracy because of the greater
amount of energy involved, he said. Both the A-bomb and H-bomb use radioactive
material like uranium and plutonium for the explosive material.
The
hydrogen bomb is in fact already the global standard for the five nations with
the greatest nuclear capabilities — the U.S., Russia, France, the U.K. and
China. Other nations may also either have it or may be working on it, despite a
worldwide effort to contain such proliferation.
The
hydrogen bomb was never dropped on any targets. It was first successfully
tested in the 1950s by the U.S., in bombs called Mike and Bravo. Soviet tests
soon followed.
The
crew of a Japanese fishing boat that unknowingly went into the waters near the
nuclear testing of Bravo got acute radiation sickness. Since the 1960s, nuclear
tests have gone underground to reduce radioactive fallout.
Terumi
Tanaka, head of Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Federation of A- and H-bomb
Sufferers Organisations, has been working to ban nuclear weapons for years and
was stunned by reports of the H-bomb test.
“It
defies hopes for progress,” he said. “I am outraged.”
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