The Collaborative International Dictionary
nuclear explosion \nuclear explosion\ n. The explosion of an atomic bomb or atomic device; -- sometimes also used of fusion-powered explosions.
Syn: atomic explosion.
WordNet
n. the explosion of an atomic bomb [syn: atomic explosion]
Wikipedia
A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission, nuclear fusion or a multistage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion based weapons have used a fission device to initiate fusion, and a pure fusion weapon remains a hypothetical device.
Atmospheric nuclear explosions are associated with mushroom clouds, although mushroom clouds can occur with large chemical explosions, and it is possible to have an air-burst nuclear explosion without these clouds. Nuclear explosions produce radiation and radioactive debris.
Any nuclear explosion (or nuclear war) would have wide-ranging, long-term, catastrophic effects, that could threaten the survival of humankind. Radioactive contamination would cause genetic mutations and cancer across many generations.
Usage examples of "nuclear explosion".
Why were the Americans on a full-blown nuclear alert - yes, of course, a possible nuclear explosion in their country was a grave matter, but could they be so mad as to assume that a Soviet had done such a thing?
Certainly any revelation of a nuclear explosion would not only cause the government's already shaky premise to fall apart, but would cause widespread panic among the population.
A bullet between the eyes, a bomb dropped from far above, a cruise missile launched from hundreds of miles away-even the millisecond flash of a nuclear explosion and the briefest sensation of the heat of the fireball.
As the minutes ticked by, the image of the gutted Federal Building in Oklahoma City haunted them alla single building leveled by nothing more exotic than fertilizer and fuel oil, a tiny fraction of the power of a nuclear explosion.
The fallout of the nuclear explosion in Denver, which had brought the world to the brink of a full-scale nuclear exchange, had caused Russia and America to take a deep breath and then to eliminate all of their ballistic launchers.
So for the second time in his life he ended up in the path of a nuclear explosion.
Being caught in a nuclear explosion, as an alternative, had its positive aspects.
Coming so soon after the nuclear explosion in the Markerwaard, it should have a devastating effect on the government who will all too clearly appreciate the implications and realize that the FFF has the nation by the throat.