US, Russia plan bomb 100 times more powerful than hydrogen

US, Russia plan bomb 100 times more powerful than hydrogen
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

WASHINGTON, FEB 21: The US and Russia are jointly working on building a pure fusion bomb hundred times more powerful than the hydrogen bombs.

Experiments are being jointly conducted at American Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico and Russian Los Alamos National Laboratory, Hisham Zerriffi, project scientist at Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) and Arjun Makhijani, president of IEER, said.

"Hydrogen bomb is set off by a fission trigger whereas for a pure fusion bomb, there is no such trigger and no minimum critical mass is needed. Pure fusion weapons could be made with very low yields and would not produce fallout, blurring distinction between conventional and nuclear explosives. Yet lethality of such weapons would still be great," the two scientists said.

"Though the scientific feasibility of pure fusion weapons has yet to be proven, research on pure fusion explosions sends a dangerous signal about the intent of nuclear weapon powers," they said.

Referring to India, they said, "India's refusal to sign CTBT was, in part, a reaction to this type of research by nuclear weapon states. In turn, its decision to conduct underground nuclear tests was partly related to its conclusion that CTBT had changed from a non-discriminatory instrument designed to promote both non-proliferation and disarmament into a tool for non-proliferation alone. Furthermore, some fusion research appears to violate CTBT."