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What is a hydrogen bomb and is it worse than a regular atomic bomb?

The H-bomb is potentially vastly more destructive than traditional atomic bombs.
The H-bomb is potentially vastly more destructive than traditional atomic bombs. The H-bomb is potentially vastly more destructive than traditional atomic bombs.

North Korea claimed on Sunday to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb but what exactly is it? And how is it different from the traditional atomic bomb?

A hydrogen bomb is potentially vastly more destructive than the atomic bombs that devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

An H-bomb, as it is colloquially known, derives much of its power from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes.

Unlike an atomic bomb, which works by a fission process where uranium or plutonium is split into lighter elements, a hydrogen bomb functions by the fusing of lighter elements into heavier elements.

People reacting to the news of their country's latest nuclear test, at the Mirae Scientists Street in Pyongyang.
People reacting to the news of their country's latest nuclear test, at the Mirae Scientists Street in Pyongyang. (Kim Kwang Hyon/AP/PA Images)
People reacting to the news of their country’s latest nuclear test, at the Mirae Scientists Street in Pyongyang (Kim Kwang Hyon/AP)

The end product still weighs less than its components, with the difference appearing as energy.

Hydrogen bombs are also known as thermonuclear bombs, because extremely high temperatures are needed to start fusion reactions.

An atomic bomb forms the centre of a hydrogen bomb, which, when it explodes, supplies these temperatures.

The nuclear fusions then create enough neutrons to trigger further fission reactions in the atomic core, steadily increasing the explosive power.

Ryoo Yong-gyu, director of Earthquake and Volcano of the Korea Monitoring Division in South Korea, speaks to the media about North Korea's artificial earthquake.
Ryoo Yong-gyu, director of Earthquake and Volcano of the Korea Monitoring Division in South Korea, speaks to the media about North Korea's artificial earthquake. (Lee Jin-man/AP/PA Images)
Ryoo Yong-gyu, director of Earthquake and Volcano of the Korea Monitoring Division in South Korea, speaks to the media about North Korea’s artificial earthquake (Lee Jin-man/AP)

High pressures in the centre of the explosion cause shockwaves, which contain most of the energy released and are responsible for the major part of the destructive effects of a nuclear bomb.

The results vary, depending on whether it is detonated in the air, underwater or underground.

North Korea’s state media said the country’s leader Kim Jong Un had inspected the loading of a hydrogen bomb into a new intercontinental ballistic missile.

There has been some scepticism from experts about Pyongyang’s assertion that it has mastered hydrogen technology, but it is almost impossible to independently confirm North Korean statements about its highly secretive weapons programme.