Although North Korea has carried out nuclear tests before, the international community panicked more this time. A lot more.
Both bombs - atomic and hydrogen - are a type of nuclear weapon, which means that energy is released as a result of a nuclear reaction. However, the way they actually release energy is different, which leads to differences in the power of one bomb and another.
One of the biggest differences is that the atomic bomb uses nuclear fission, which splits a larger atom into two smaller ones to create energy. A hydrogen bomb, on the other hand, uses fusion, that is, it combines two or more smaller atoms into one large one.
The hydrogen bomb also has a fission weapon in it, which is used to trigger the release of energy and fusion. This is necessary because fusion weapons require a huge amount of energy to set off - as much as an atomic bomb can release. Stars also produce energy through fusion.
"Imagine what happens inside the sun. In theory, the process is potentially infinite. The amount of energy is enormous," said Takao Takahara, associate professor of international politics and peace at Tokyo's Meiji Gakuin University.
The H-bomb, which is also called thermonuclear and "superbomb", according to experts' estimates, can be up to 1.000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Japan in World War II.
The hydrogen bomb got its name from hydrogen, which is used in fusion.
Because of the way they are made, hydrogen bombs are usually much more powerful than atomic bombs.
This is exactly what the world is worried about announcements by North Korea which has now tested a hydrogen bomb for the first time.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, and since then it has tested nuclear weapons two more times.
The enormous power of the hydrogen bomb is one of the reasons analysts are skeptical of North Korea's announcement.
Detonating such a bomb underground would cause a major earthquake - but the power of the bomb tested was less than the one dropped on Hiroshima.
How powerful the hydrogen bomb is is best shown by a huge mistake that happened to the Americans in 1954. At the end of February, the first American thermonuclear bomb that could be ejected from a bomber was tested on an artificial island ("Castle Bravo" experiment). It was the largest nuclear test and, at the same time, the largest nuclear incident in the entire American history. An unexpectedly large explosion of 15 megatons (twice as large as expected), combined with unfavorable weather conditions, caused radiological contamination over 7.000 square kilometers. Although many islands were urgently evacuated before the onslaught of radioactive fog, there was no escape for many irradiated residents. Over the following decades, they died en masse from cancer and other diseases caused by radiation.
However, the North Koreans claim that they have "minimized" the bomb and reduced it to atomic power.
Facts that make the hydrogen bomb much more dangerous:
1. A hydrogen bomb is a much more powerful nuclear weapon
2. The energy released by the hydrogen bomb is several orders of magnitude higher than the atomic energy. A hydrogen bomb can wipe out entire cities in one blast.
3. A hydrogen bomb draws energy from atomic fusion, and an atomic bomb from fission.
4. The H bomb is much more complicated to manufacture since it requires a much higher temperature - several million degrees.
5. It is easier to produce H-bombs in smaller sizes, and therefore it is easier to insert them into missiles and thus fire them at another continent.
6. Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to this day the H bomb has never been used in war.
7. Both atomic and hydrogen bombs use radioactive materials such as uranium and plutonium, but the H-bomb requires greater control and precision due to the greater amount of energy released.
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