The Collaborative International Dictionary
Nuclear device \Nu"cle*ar dev"ice\, n. an explosive device, whether used as a weapon or for other purposes, which depends for most of its explosive power on the release of energy from within atomic nuclei. A fission device or a fusion device.
Usage examples of "fission device".
Our studies indicate that a first- or even second-generation fission device might be achievable, but the maximum yield for such a device is certainly less than a hundred—.
Our studies indicate that a first- or even second-generation fission device might be achievable, but the maximum yield for such a device is certainly less than a hundred - probably less than forty kilotons.
In the base of each projectile is a fission device of at least 25 kilotons.
In front of him, where he could watch it, the blue-black cylinder of the hyper-fission device lay still and quiet like a sleeping shark.
The H-bomb (hydrogen bomb), first tested in 1952, is a fusion rather than fission device, joining the nuclei of hydrogen atoms together in an uncontrolled nuclear reaction.
Based on radiation signatures and the size of the crater left smoldering in its wake, however, the experts surmised that this one must have been the result of a small, low-yield fission device.