Information about the W88 has implied that it is a variation of the
standard Teller–Ulam design for thermonuclear weapons. In a thermonuclear weapon such as the W88,
nuclear fission in the
primary stage causes
nuclear fusion in the
secondary stage, which results in the main explosion. Although the weapon employs fusion in the
secondary, most of the explosive yield comes from fission of nuclear material in the
primary, secondary, and casing. In 1999, the
San Jose Mercury News reported that the W88 had an egg-shaped
primary and a spherical
secondary, which were together inside a radiation case known as the "peanut" for its shape. Four months later,
The New York Times reported that in 1995 a supposed
double agent from the
People's Republic of China delivered information indicating that China knew these details about the W88 warhead as well, supposedly through espionage (this line of investigation eventually resulted in the abortive trial of
Wen Ho Lee). If these stories are true, it would indicate a variation of the Teller-Ulam design which would allow for the miniaturization required for small MIRVed warheads. The value of an egg-shaped primary lies apparently in the fact that a MIRV warhead is limited by the diameter of the primary—if an egg-shaped primary can be made to work properly, then the MIRV warhead can be made considerably smaller yet still deliver a high-yield explosion—a W88 warhead manages to yield up to 475 kt with a reentry vehicle length of approximately and base diameter of while the actual
physics package is long. , The weapon contains the material
Fogbank. While its precise nature is classified, Fogbank is believed to be a foam or
aerogel material used in the weapon's interstage.
Komodo The
Komodo is a United States fission
nuclear bomb used as the
primary for W88. It was designed by Los Alamos scientist Ralph Douglas Johnson. Most details about the bomb remain classified. Some information was released during the espionage trial of Taiwanese-American Los Alamos scientist
Wen Ho Lee. This included its name, and the name of the "
Cursa" thermonuclear second stage (named for
the star). It is a plutonium implosion weapon, with a hollow core, for deuterium and tritium injection immediately prior to detonation for
fusion boosting. Also detailed was its
prolate spheroid shape, variously referred to as a football or watermelon-shaped, which indicates a
two-point implosion design, similar to most previous warhead primaries. From 1992, China began testing similar aspherical primary devices. Los Alamos nuclear primary designer
John Richter believed that China's low-yield
September 25, 1992 nuclear test was an espionage-derived copycat of the Komodo primary, but this has since been disputed. == See also ==