A fizzle occurs when the

detonation Detonation () is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves with s ...

of a device for creating a

nuclear explosion A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, ...

(such as a

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

) grossly fails to meet its expected yield. The cause(s) for the failure can be linked to improper design, poor construction, or lack of expertise.Staff Writer.
NBC Weapons: North Korean Fizzle Bomb
" ''Strategy Page.'' Retrieved on 2008-05-04. Earl Lane.
Nuclear Experts Assess the Threat of a "Backyard Bomb”
" ''

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

.'' Retrieved on 2008-05-04. All countries that have had a

nuclear weapons testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

program have experienced some fizzles. Meirion Jones.
A short history of fizzles
" ''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

.'' Retrieved on 2008-05-04. A fizzle can spread

radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consi ...

material throughout the surrounding area, involve a partial fission reaction of the fissile material, or both.Theodore E. Liolios.
The Effects of Nuclear Terrorism: Fizzles
" (PDF) ''European Program on Science and International Security.'' Retrieved on 2008-05-04. For practical purposes, a fizzle can still have considerable explosive yield when compared to conventional weapons. In multistage fission-fusion weapons, full yield of the fission primary that fails to initiate fusion ignition in the fusion secondary (or produces only a small degree of fusion) is also considered a "fizzle", as the weapon failed to reach its design yield despite the fission primary working correctly. Such fizzles can have very high yields, as in the case of Castle Koon, where the secondary stage of a device with a 1 megaton design fizzled, but its primary still generated a yield of 100 kilotons, and even the fizzled secondary still contributed another 10 kilotons, for a total yield of 110 kT.

Fusion boosting

If a

deuterium Deuterium (or hydrogen-2, symbol or deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being protium, or hydrogen-1). The nucleus of a deuterium atom, called a deuteron, contains one proton and one ...

tritium Tritium ( or , ) or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with half-life about 12 years. The nucleus of tritium (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of ...

mixture is placed at the center of the device to be compressed and heated by the fission explosion, a fission yield of 250 tons is sufficient to cause D-T fusion releasing high-energy fusion neutrons which will then fission much of the remaining fission fuel. This is known as a

boosted fission weapon 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 reaction. The neutrons released by the fusion reactions add to the neutrons released ...

.http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/DoSuitcaseNukesExist.html Nuclear Weapon Archive, Carey Sublette: Are Suitcase Bombs Possible? If a fission device designed for boosting is tested without the boost gas, a yield in the sub-kiloton range may indicate a successful test that the device's implosion and primary fission stages are working as designed, though this does not test the boosting process itself.

Nuclear fission tests considered to be fizzles

; Buster Able: Considered to be the first known failure of any nuclear device.Carey Sublette.
Operation Buster-Jangle 1951
" ''Nuclear Weapon Archive.'' Retrieved on 2008-05-04. ; Upshot–Knothole Ruth: Testing a

uranium hydride bomb The uranium hydride bomb was a variant design of the atomic bomb first suggested by Robert Oppenheimer in 1939 and advocated and tested by Edward Teller. It used deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, as a neutron moderator in a uranium-deuterium ce ...

. The test failed to declassify the site (erase evidence) as it left the bottom third of the shot tower still standing.Carey Sublette.
Operation Upshot-Knothole 1953 - Nevada Proving Ground
" ''Nuclear Weapon Archive.'' Retrieved on 2008-05-04. ; Upshot–Knothole Ray: Similar test conducted the following month. Allegedly a shorter tower was chosen, to ensure that the tower would be completely destroyed. ; North Korean nuclear test in 2006: Russia claimed to have measured 5–15 kt yield, whereas the United States, France, and South Korea measured less than 1 kt yield.Penny Spiller.
N Korea test - failure or fake?
" ''

.'' Retrieved on 2008-05-04. This North Korean debut test was weaker than all other countries' initial tests by a factor of 20,Todd Crowell.
A deadly kind of fizzle
" ''

Asia Times Online ''Asia Times'' (), formerly known as ''Asia Times Online'', is a Hong Kong-based English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business and culture from an Asian perspective. ''Asia Times'' publishes in English ...

.'' Retrieved on 2008-05-04. and the smallest initial test in history.Staff Writer.
Special report -The fizzle heard around the world
" '' Nature.com.'' Retrieved on 2008-05-04.

Nuclear fusion tests that fizzled

; Castle Koon: A thermonuclear device whose fusion secondary did not successfully ignite, with only low-level fusion burning taking place. ;Short Granite: Dropped by the United Kingdom over

Malden Island Malden Island, sometimes called Independence Island in the 19th century, is a low, arid, uninhabited atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, about in area. It is one of the Line Islands belonging to the Republic of Kiribati. The lagoon is enti ...

in pacific on May 15, 1957 during Operation Grapple 1, this bomb had an expected yield of over 1 megaton, but only exploded with a force of a quarter of the anticipated yield. The test was still considered successful, as thermonuclear ignition occurred and contributed substantially to the bomb's yield. Another bomb dropped during Grapple 1, Purple Granite, was hoped to give an improved yield over Short Granite, but the yield was even lower.

Terrorist concerns

One month after the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

, a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

informant known as "Dragonfire" reported that

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

had smuggled a low-yield nuclear weapon into

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

.Nicholas D. Kristof.
An American Hiroshima
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

.'' Published August 11, 2004. Retrieved on 2008-05-04. Although the report was found to be false, concerns were expressed that even a "fizzle bomb" capable of yielding a fraction of the known 10-kiloton weapons could cause "horrific" consequences. A detonation in New York City would mean thousands of civilian casualties.Michael A. Levi
How Likely is a Nuclear Terrorist Attack on the United States?
." ''

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York Ci ...

''. Retrieved on 2008-05-04.

References

{{reflist, 35em

External links