Atom bomb
Nuclear weapon "Atom bomb" and "Atomic Bomb" redirect here. For the album, see Atomic Bomb (album) . For other uses, see Atom bomb (disambiguation) . A nuclear weapon (also called an atom bomb, nuke, atomic bomb, nuclear warhead, A-bomb, or nuclear bomb ) is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions , either fission (fission bomb) or from a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb). Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first test of a fission ("atomic") bomb released an amount of energy approximately equal to 20,000 tons of TNT (84 TJ ). [1] The first thermonuclear ("hydrogen") bomb test released energy approximately equal to 10 million tons of TNT (42 PJ). Nuclear bombs have had yields between 10 t...