To make a hydrogen bomb, one would still need uranium or plutonium as well as two other isotopes of hydrogen, called deuterium and tritium. “You have to master the A-bomb first,” Hall said.Īn atomic bomb uses either uranium or plutonium and relies on fission, a nuclear reaction in which a nucleus or an atom breaks apart into two pieces. Simply speaking, experts say a hydrogen bomb is the more advanced version of an atomic bomb. “A regular atomic bomb would still be devastating, but it would not do nearly as much damage as an H-bomb.” “It will basically wipe out any of modern cities,” Hall said. Hall, director of the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Nuclear Security, called the hydrogen bomb a “city killer” that would probably annihilate between 100 and 1,000 times more people than an atomic bomb. “In other words, you kill more people,” he said. “With the bomb we dropped in Nagasaki, it killed everybody within a mile radius,” Morse told TIME on Friday, adding that a hydrogen bomb’s reach would be closer to 5 or 10 miles. The rest of the year the site is closed to the public because it lies within the impact zone for missiles fired into the northern part of WSMR.Hydrogen bombs cause a bigger explosion, which means the shock waves, blast, heat and radiation all have larger reach than an atomic bomb, according to Edward Morse, a professor of nuclear engineering at University of California, Berkeley.Īlthough no other country has used such a weapon of mass destruction since World War II, experts say it would be even more catastrophic if a hydrogen bomb were to be dropped instead of an atomic one. Today, visits to the site are sponsored by WSMR in April and October. The landmark includes base camp, where the scientists and support group lived the McDonald ranch house, where the plutonium core was assembled as well as Ground Zero. In 1975, the National Park Service designated Trinity Site as a National Historic Landmark. In 1965, Army officials erected a monument on Ground Zero. By 1953, much of the radioactivity had subsided, and the first Trinity Site open house was held in September of that year. The site was closed to both WSMR personnel and the general public. A “Fat Man” bomb casing is on display in front of the WSMR visitor center.Īfter the explosion, Trinity Site was encircled with more than a mile of chain-link fencing, and signs were posted to warn people of radioactivity. The bombs exploded at Trinity Site and Nagasaki had plutonium cores. The Hiroshima bombing was the second artificial nuclear explosion in history, after the Trinity test, and the first uranium-based detonation. Three days later, a third bomb codenamed “Fat Man,” devastated the city of Nagasaki. The world’s second atomic bomb, codenamed “Little Boy,” was exploded over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. The explosion point was named Trinity Site.Īlthough no information on the test was released until after the atomic bomb had been used as a weapon, the flash of light and shock wave made a vivid impression over an area with a radius of at least 160 miles. This material was given the name trinitite. Sand in the crater was fused by the intense heat into a glass-like solid, the color of green jade. Where the tower had been was a crater one-half mile across and eight feet deep. A multi-colored cloud surged 38,000 feet into the air within seven minutes. To most observers-watching through dark glasses-the brilliance of the light from the explosion overshadowed the shock wave and sound that arrived some seconds later. on July 16, the nuclear device, known as “Gadget,” was successfully detonated. The wooden observation shelters were protected by concrete and earthen barricades, and the nearest observation point was 5.7 miles from Ground Zero.Īt 5:30 a.m. Equipment, instruments, and observation points were established at varying distances from Ground Zero. Ground Zero was at the foot of the tower. On July 16, 1945, one week after the establishment of White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated in the north-central portion of the missile range, approximately 60 miles north of White Sands National Park.įor the Project Trinity test, the bomb was placed atop a 100-foot steel tower that was designated Zero.
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