North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with what the regime said was a hydrogen device. Photo / AP
North Korea tested what it said was a hydrogen nuclear bomb yesterday.
1 Atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs are both nuclear weapons, but hydrogen bomb blasts are up to 1,000 times more powerful.
2 Atomic bombs, like the ones the US dropped on Japan hoping to end WWII, get their
power from nuclear fission - splitting large atoms into smaller ones.
3 Hydrogen bombs get their power from a two-stage reaction: firstly fission, which splits atoms, then fusion, which melds two or more atoms to create larger ones. This two stage process is often referred to as a thermonuclear reaction.
4 The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima unleased the equivalent force of 15 kilotons of TNT. By comparison, the first hydrogen bomb tested by the US had the equivalent power of 10,000 kilotons of TNT.
