Year 1951

In 1951 the United States of America tested their first Hydrogen Bomb.

The United States tested their first Hydrogen Bomb (a 10.4 megaton device), which was detonated in the Marshall Islands on the 1^st of November 1951, and was so powerful that it destroyed the island of Elugelab. This bomb was 1,000 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It was a 15 megaton bomb, which was too powerful for the testing equipment and was the biggest man-made explosion in history (until Russia tested their 50 megaton hydrogen bomb in 1961). Because the bomb had been far more powerful than expected, the radiation from nuclear fallout was also greater, and 264 people were exposed to high doses of radiation. Twenty-three crew members aboard a Japanese fishing boat named “The Lucky Dragon” were affected despite being 80 miles away from the explosion at the time. Atom bombs such as the one dropped on Hiroshima are produced from nuclear fission (splitting the atom), but Hydrogen Bombs use a nuclear fission bomb to create enough heat to cause a secondary nuclear fusion reaction. This is when two atoms (in this case hydrogen) are fused into one atom which is the same process that powers the sun.