JFK+50: Volume 6, No. 1845
PRESIDENT TRUMAN ANNOUNCES AUTHORIZATION FOR THE H-BOMBWashington, D.C. (JFK+50) Sixty-six years ago today, January 31, 1950, President Harry S Truman announced he had authorized development of the hydrogen bomb. The announcement came just five months after the Soviet Union's detonation of its' first atomic bomb.
President Truman described the H-bomb as the world's 1st "super bomb". Because very high temperatures are required to begin fusion reactions, the bomb is also known as a thermonuclear bomb.
The US detonated its first H-bomb in the Marshall Islands on November 1, 1952. On January 7, 1953, President Truman said...
"We have entered another stage in the world-shaking development of atomic energy. From now on, man moves into a new era of destructive power."
The Soviets followed with their H-bomb on November 22, 1955. Since that time, Britain, France and China have exploded hydrogen bombs.
According to Stephanie Pappas of Live Science...
"Hydrogen bombs...are more powerful than atomic, or fission bombs (like those used on Japan in WWII)."
While most of the uranium or plutonium goes unused in a fission bomb, this is not the case in a hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb. To illustrate the power differential, the two atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki totaled 35 kilotons of TNT, but the single hydrogen bomb tested by the United States in 1952 totaled 10,000 kilotons of TNT.
SOURCES
"Hydrogen Bomb vs. Atomic Bomb: What's the Difference," by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science, January 6, 2016, www.livescience.com
"When Truman Announced they Hydrogen-Bomb," The Atlantic, January 8, 2016, www.theatlantic.com/
Hydrogen Bomb Mushroom Cloud
Marshall Islands
November 1, 1952
