"The bomb weighs approximately 1,100 kilograms (2,400 lb)"
"the greater part of the total mass is contained in the nuclear explosive. It has a variable yield: the destructive power is adjustable from somewhere in the low kiloton range up to a maximum of 1.2 megatons"
1.2 MT is 60 times stronger yield than the Nagasaki bomb which had only "6.19 kilograms (13.6 lb) of plutonium."
> packed with hydrogen and other harmless elements
They are never "hydrogen and other harmless elements."
It's radioactive, produced only in the nuclear reactors, and specifically for the colloquially called H-bomb part of the current designs.
It's the computerized part that controls the desired yield and we know that
a) the computers can't be made to be bug free and 100% secure
b) the mechanical parts controlled by the computer have all the necessary material for the full yield.
The argument "but it's more secure because the built-in computer controls it" should be laughable for the HN readers. Hiding behind the "it's complex that's why it's safer" works better only for those without the technical background.
The people who know how that stuff works are typically the most worried. There are enough worries when countries acquire even enough raw material which can be used to produce the bomb, here we talk about the fully built bombs with enough material for the full yield.
You conflate terms. Explosive warhead includes conventional explosives and the "physics package" with nuclear material. Modern bombs have proportionally more explosive and less fission material than historic weapons. By weight they are mostly all conventional explosives. And tritium is harmless. ... too many similar issues to address here on mobile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B83_nuclear_bomb
"The bomb weighs approximately 1,100 kilograms (2,400 lb)"
"the greater part of the total mass is contained in the nuclear explosive. It has a variable yield: the destructive power is adjustable from somewhere in the low kiloton range up to a maximum of 1.2 megatons"
1.2 MT is 60 times stronger yield than the Nagasaki bomb which had only "6.19 kilograms (13.6 lb) of plutonium."
> packed with hydrogen and other harmless elements
They are never "hydrogen and other harmless elements."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermonuclear_weapon
It's mostly heavy nuclear material, the closest to "light" hydrogen is tritium:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium
It's radioactive, produced only in the nuclear reactors, and specifically for the colloquially called H-bomb part of the current designs.
It's the computerized part that controls the desired yield and we know that
a) the computers can't be made to be bug free and 100% secure
b) the mechanical parts controlled by the computer have all the necessary material for the full yield.
The argument "but it's more secure because the built-in computer controls it" should be laughable for the HN readers. Hiding behind the "it's complex that's why it's safer" works better only for those without the technical background.
The people who know how that stuff works are typically the most worried. There are enough worries when countries acquire even enough raw material which can be used to produce the bomb, here we talk about the fully built bombs with enough material for the full yield.