Wiktionary
n. An atomic bomb that uses nuclear fission as a source of energy
WordNet
n. a nuclear weapon in which enormous energy is released by nuclear fission (splitting the nuclei of a heavy element like uranium 235 or plutonium 239) [syn: atom bomb, atomic bomb, A-bomb, plutonium bomb]
Usage examples of "fission bomb".
But each was a plutonium fission bomb with a nominal yield of 60 kilotons, quite enough to carve the heart out of a large city, or to kill thousands of troops in the field, or, with the addition of cobalt jackets—.
In what I did read of fusion bombs, however, I read nothing about their ignition that would have eliminated the fission bomb as the igniting mechanism.
I suspect, then, that based, in part, on this negative evidence, the fission bomb was the igniting mechanism.
It had been designed to stand direct impact of a fission bomb without damage to personnel in its deepest tunnels-and that was where the Prophet was spending his days, one could be sure.
Fusion bombs use no less a force than a fission bomb to heat and compress their fuel, but power generation and space drives (Project Orion excepted) require less violent methods.
The preponderance of current evidence is that the USSR, even before it exploded its first fission bomb, had a workable design for a thermonuclear weapon.
Each projectile consisted of a fission bomb contained in an ellipsoidal cavity shaped to feed a configuration of lasing material that would transform a large proportion of the detonation energy into fifty independently aimable beams of high-density X rays.
There are still some open questions, like how the Soviets actually got the fission bomb, and the Vietnam War, and the Arab Takeover.
The device was pumped by the energy from a fission bomb explosion, focused in the nanoseconds before the rods vaporized into concentrated X-ray laser beams capable of destroying a spacecraft from ten thousand miles.