Design of a modern thermonuclear weapon

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A modern thermonuclear weapon usually contains both plutonium and highly-enriched uranium. Typically, these warheads have a mass of about 200-300 kg and a yield of several hundred kilotons, which corresponds to about one kilogram per kiloton of explosive yield. For comparison, the nuclear weapons that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki weighed 300 kg per kiloton.

This work is licensed under a Creative Common License. Drawing adapted from Final Report of the Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the Peoples Republic of China, 3 January 1999, also known as the Cox Report.

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