Greenhouse George

Common card · No. 396281

Greenhouse George was an American nuclear test conducted on May 8, 1951 at Enewetak Atoll, part of Operation Greenhouse. It was the first instance of thermonuclear fusion brought about by humans, i.e. energy release from atomic nuclei colliding at very high temperatures. The largest nuclear explosion until that point, it yielded 225 kilotons TNT equivalent. The nuclear device, named Cylinder, was a test of the X-ray radiation implosion principle that was key to the Teller-Ulam design, devised in January 1951, the basis for thermonuclear weapons. A large cylindrical implosion annulus of highly enriched uranium channeled X-rays to a beryllium oxide capsule containing less than an ounce of deuterium and tritium. This DT fusion was estimated to yield 25 kilotons of the total yield, and was verified hours later by the detection of characteristic fusion neutrons. The George test validated the principles which would be used for the world's first full-scale thermonuclear bomb test, Ivy Mike, over...

Read on Wikipedia · Image U.S. Federal Government, Public domain