Nuclear weapons design are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package of a nuclear weapon to detonate. There are three...

Critical Nuclear Weapon Design Information (CNWDI, often pronounced SIN-widdy or SIN-wuh-dee) is a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) category of Top Secret...

understood to possess nuclear weapons, though only eight formally acknowledge possessing them. Five are considered to be nuclear-weapon states (NWS) under...

yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy released such as blast, thermal, and nuclear radiation, when that particular nuclear weapon is detonated...

In nuclear weapon design, the pit is the core of an implosion nuclear weapon, consisting of fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded...

A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly...

believed to be used in virtually all modern nuclear weapons that make up the arsenals of the major nuclear powers. The idea of using the energy from a...

Nuclear weapons delivery is the technology and systems used to place a nuclear weapon at the position of detonation, on or near its target. All nine nuclear...

A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW) is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations...

are known to possess a nuclear triad, being capable to deliver nuclear weapons by land, sea and air. American nuclear weapons of all types – bombs, warheads...

and a pure fusion weapon remains a hypothetical device. Nuclear explosions are used in nuclear weapons and nuclear testing. Nuclear explosions are extremely...

A boosted fission weapon usually refers to a type of nuclear bomb that uses a small amount of fusion fuel to increase the rate, and thus yield, of a fission...

component of the weapon is designed to penetrate soil, rock, or concrete to deliver a nuclear warhead to an underground target. These weapons would be used...

temperature, and surroundings. The concept is important in nuclear weapon design. When a nuclear chain reaction in a mass of fissile material is self-sustaining...

In a nuclear weapon, a tamper is an optional layer of dense material surrounding the fissile material. It is used in nuclear weapon design to reduce the...

France is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, but is not known to possess or develop...

suitcase nuclear device (also suitcase nuke, suitcase bomb, backpack nuke, snuke, mini-nuke, and pocket nuke) is a tactical nuclear weapon that is portable...

The Mark 5 nuclear bomb and W5 nuclear warhead were a common core American nuclear weapon design, designed in the early 1950s and which saw service from...

Gun-type fission weapons are fission-based nuclear weapons whose design assembles their fissile material into a supercritical mass by the use of the "gun"...

Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of their explosion. Nuclear testing...

secrets, all nations with nuclear weapons have strict restrictions against the giving of information relating to nuclear weapon design, stockpiles, delivery...

Since their first use in warfare in August 1945, nuclear weapons and their potential effects have been a recurring motif in popular culture, to the extent...

targets, and generating thermal radiation waves. They may also be used in Nuclear Weapon designs. The indirect drive approach to inertial confinement fusion...

Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries, particularly those not recognized as Nuclear Weapon States by the Treaty...

conventional explosives. In most cases, the energy released from a nuclear weapon detonated within the lower atmosphere can be approximately divided into...

occurs when the detonation of a device for creating a nuclear explosion (such as a nuclear weapon) grossly fails to meet its expected yield. The bombs...

The United States was the first country to manufacture nuclear weapons and is the only country to have used them in combat, with the bombings of Hiroshima...

Nuclear sharing is a concept in NATO and Russia's policies of nuclear deterrence, which allows member countries without nuclear weapons of their own to...

into weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons under the apartheid government. South Africa's nuclear weapons doctrine...

A strategic nuclear weapon (SNW) is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on targets often in settled territory far from the battlefield as part...