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History of the Teller–Ulam design During the Manhattan Project, Enrico Fermi casually mentions the idea of a weapon that uses a fission reaction to produce a fusion reaction to his collegue, Edward Teller. Because the Manhattan Project occured while the hydrogen bomb was being developed, the development of the it overlaped with that of atomic nuclear weapons. Also, one needs an atomic bomb to make an H-Bomb.
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Los Alamos National Laboratory Oppenehimer helps establish labs at Los Alamos, US, the first major step to the development of both atomic and thermonuclear weapons in the US. There, he created the first test of an atomic weaopn, which led to the eventual development of thermonuclear weaopns.
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1954: Hydrogen Bomb Igor Kurchatov, the scientific director of the Soviet Union's nuclear project, headed the research and development of the hydrogen bomb in the Soviet Union. He was in charge of the Soviet thermonuclear program, which began in 1946.
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J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904 - 1967) Oppenheimer is the Chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the AEC. During this time, he voiced a strong opposition to the development of atomic and thermonuclear weapons.
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H-BOMB DEVELOPMENT SUMMARY Figures such as David Lilienthal and J. Robert Oppenheimer (who were against the development of the hydrogen bomb), and Lewis Strauss, Dean Acheson, and Lewis Johnson (who were for the develpoment of the hydrogen bomb) debated. Eventually, President Truman agreed with the pro-hydrogen bomb side of the argument. (Note: the dates are somewhat ambiguous, and should not be used as exact dates.)
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H-Bomb Development Summary President Truman announces to the public that the US will start developing a thermonuclear weapon.
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February 12: Einstein Opposes the H-Bomb Albert Einstein speaks out against the US development of the hydrogen bomb on the show "Today With Mrs. Roosevelt".
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H-BOMB DEVELOPMENT SUMMARY United States President Harry S. Truman orders the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to start devolping a hydrogen bomb.
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Edward Teller - Hydrogen Bomb Along with others, Teller invents the hydrogen bomb at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. One of the people he worked with was Stan Ulam, which is why the design of the hydrogen bomb is called the Teller-Ulam design.
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United States tests first hydrogen bomb The US is the first to detonate a hydrogen bomb. They detonated it on Eniwetok atoll, in the Pacific ocean. The detonation was called Ivy Mike.
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The Soviets' "Joe-4" Bomb Makes its Mark The Soviet Union detonates it's first thermonuclear device at the Kazakh testing grounds.
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Thermonuclear Weapons A decision was made in secret by a Defence Policy Committee to start developing thermonuclear weapons. The argument for this was that if Britain wanted to remain a superpower, they would need the most modern weapons.
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8 November 1957 - Grapple X The UK detonates it's first thermonuclear device at Christmas Island.
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Origin of the Force de Frappe This is a timespan of possible dates at which France started it's research of thermonuclear weapons. (It is difficult to determine an exact date at which France started is thermonuclear research)
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Big Ivan, The Tsar Bomba (“King of Bombs”) The Tsar Bomba was the largest thermonuclear bomb ever detonated, detonated by the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemyla archipelago.
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Origin of the Force de Frappe France tests it's first thermonuclear weapon at Fangataufa atoll, an event known as Canopus.
