What happens in the first second of a thermonuclear explosion?

Question

I have asked experts at Livermore but they think asking means I'm a terrorist so they declined. I'm looking for a time line, not math formulas, and not a one sentence answer. My reason for asking is to answer questions like "Why doesn't the high explosives destroy the device before a nuclear reaction can start?"

Here is what I'm looking for.
First the high explosives are set off. They take ??? micro/nanoseconds to complete the burn. The shock wave they set up is channeled to compress the core. The core takes ??? micro/nanoseconds to compress. Neutrons bombard compressed core starting chain reaction which takes about 10 nanoseconds to complete. etc. etc. etc. The timing of events is the key to a good answer. What happens is explained in books but NOT the timing of the individual events. I'm looking for all the events that happen until the nuclear reactions vaporize the bomb. Thanks.

Answer 1

I'll try to explain what I know it's been ten years or more since I learned it all.

You'll notice the ones that were dropped on japan were round, that's because there was round sphere of explosive that fired inward crushing the radioactive matter in the middle til it couldn't take anymore and the atoms started splitting.

Present day nukes use a bullet type trigger that fires a slug into the radioactive material which puts it under extreme pressure causing the same results as above.

You mention the first second, all this happens in milliseconds. In one second it has already blown up and is in the beginning of it's destruction.

Answer 2

I couldn't find all the details for a thermonuclear (Hydrogen) bomb, but there's some useful info in the link below. Bottom line seems to be that once the explosives have assembled the fissile material, and the initiator's kicked off the fission reaction, it takes about a millisecond for the explosion to occur. Far from destroying the device, the shaped charges hold the fissile material together while the developing chain reaction is trying to blow it apart.

Answer 3

Well - the High explosive used in thermonuclear weapons is what creates the chain reation that makes the explosion nuclear. a detonation device forces certain particles to bombard the enriched uranium core of the weapon. When those certain particles hit the uranium, it starts an incredibly rapid chain reaction - This is what causes the nuclear explosion. You didn't want math - that's the best way to explain it - but it would take quite a while and quite a bit of space. =)

Answer 4

http://video.google.fr/videoplay?docid=-8634327889227487439&q=thermonuclear
might help to answer your question (he has a strange voice tbh)

Answer 5

OK c that is so beyond me! i am taking Physics oon but i'll ask my math teacher maybe i'll email you...........