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China tests non-nuclear hydrogen bomb, science paper shows
South China Morning Post ^ | 04/20/2025

Posted on 04/20/2025 10:24:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Chinese researchers have successfully detonated a hydrogen-based explosive device in a controlled field test, triggering devastating chemical chain reactions without using any nuclear materials, according to a study published last month. The 2kg (4.4lbs) bomb generated a fireball exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) for more than two seconds – 15 times longer than equivalent TNT blasts – without using any nuclear materials, it said.

Developed by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s (CSSC) 705 Research Institute, a key player in underwater weapon systems, the device uses a magnesium-based solid-state hydrogen storage material.

Chinese researchers have successfully detonated a hydrogen-based explosive device in a controlled field test, triggering devastating chemical chain reactions without using any nuclear materials, according to a study published last month. The 2kg (4.4lbs) bomb generated a fireball exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) for more than two seconds – 15 times longer than equivalent TNT blasts – without using any nuclear materials, it said.

Developed by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s (CSSC) 705 Research Institute, a key player in underwater weapon systems, the device uses a magnesium-based solid-state hydrogen storage material.

The new technology centers on the use of magnesium hydride (MgH2), a white or silvery crystalline powder that's capable of storing an outsize amount of hydrogen.

The material and its extraordinary solid-state storage potential originally piqued scientists' interest for a peaceful purpose: transporting hydrogen to off-grid locations for use generating clean energy and heat by way of fuel cells. Magnesium hydride's storage capacity is far superior to pressurized tanks. The material is also of interest to scientists in the field of spacecraft propulsion.

(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...


TOPICS: China; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War
KEYWORDS: 50centarmy; china; concerntrolling; fiftycentarmy; hydrogenbomb; nuclear; redchina
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1 posted on 04/20/2025 10:24:53 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Considering their success with Covid gain of function crap. They’ll screw around a try this on themselves first I hope.


2 posted on 04/20/2025 10:28:49 PM PDT by Equine1952
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To: SeekAndFind

Great. Now they can demolish their empty apartment-building towers without contaminating the land.


3 posted on 04/20/2025 10:42:51 PM PDT by rfp1234 (E Porcibus Unum)
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To: SeekAndFind

A highly compressed canister of hydrogen makes a hell of an explosion if designed with an igniter. Would have to be remote. See youtub for videos of other fuel/air bombs and hydrogen explosions.
This is fake news from the chicom mouthpiece “Observer”.


4 posted on 04/20/2025 10:49:40 PM PDT by John S Mosby ( Sic Semper Tyrannis )
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To: SeekAndFind

“ China State Shipbuilding Corporation…”

And on their board was Angela Chow, Mitch McConnell’s now deceased sister in law.

That’s how compromised we are.


5 posted on 04/20/2025 10:56:26 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: ifinnegan

Take heart. Bill Clinton gave them multiple vehicles reentry tech. It’s why we have been able to hit multiple targets with one ICBM Billy boy pulled it from the Defense Department and moved it to Commerce years ago.


6 posted on 04/20/2025 11:03:38 PM PDT by Equine1952
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To: John S Mosby

Hydrogen has high energy by mass but releases its energy by combustion, not explosion like TNT, that’s why it’s never used for bombs. A tank of compressed hydrogen makes a lot of sound but few energy since most matters are ejected instead of combusted.
Hydrogen with magesium may be another beast.


7 posted on 04/20/2025 11:17:23 PM PDT by miniTAX
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To: miniTAX

Hydrogen has a very wide detonation limit in air 18-60% that’s for a high order detonation not a subsonic deflagration. If you could release a large amount of hydrogen and mix it with air to inside those limits then light it off you would get a supersonic shock wave of a fuel air munition many times more powerful than TNT as it’s not a point source detonation it is a whole area detonation the shock field is much larger. Mixing ultra high temperature burning magnesium with loads of hydrogen would do it. You get plenty of shock wave plus impossible to put out burning magnesium bits for incendiary effects.


8 posted on 04/20/2025 11:54:24 PM PDT by GenXPolymath
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To: SeekAndFind
Maybe they could call it the Challenger bomb?
9 posted on 04/21/2025 12:04:20 AM PDT by nuke_road_warrior (Making the world safe for nuclear power for over 20 years)
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To: GenXPolymath

Also, if I’m not mistaken if hydrogen has an out it will take it and all its energy will flow along that path.


10 posted on 04/21/2025 12:17:53 AM PDT by Jonty30 (I can promise I can land any plane that is in the air, because gravity only moves in one direction.)
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To: SeekAndFind

There is a storm coming.


11 posted on 04/21/2025 12:26:37 AM PDT by Revel
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To: Jonty30

Suppose you had a nuclear warhead designed to implode with a nuclear detonation slamming hydrogen atoms into each other causing a fusion energy release just asking.


12 posted on 04/21/2025 12:37:43 AM PDT by Equine1952
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To: Equine1952

This is how grok answered it.

You’re describing the basic principle behind a thermonuclear warhead, commonly known as a hydrogen bomb. Here’s a brief, simplified explanation of how it works, assuming your hypothetical scenario:

Primary Stage (Fission): A nuclear warhead initiates with a fission explosion, typically using plutonium or highly enriched uranium. This “primary” detonation releases immense energy, including high-energy neutrons and X-rays.
Secondary Stage (Fusion): The energy from the fission explosion is channeled to compress and heat a secondary component containing fusion fuel, usually isotopes of hydrogen like deuterium and tritium. The extreme pressure and temperature cause the hydrogen atoms to fuse, releasing a massive amount of energy via nuclear fusion.
Implosion Mechanism: The fission primary generates X-rays that ablate a surrounding tamper or pusher (often made of heavy materials like uranium or lead). This ablation creates a compressive force, imploding the fusion fuel to the densities and temperature needed for fusion. A “spark plug” (a subcritical fission device) inside the secondary may also contribute to the compression and ignition.
Energy Release: The fusion reaction slams hydrogen nuclei together, forming helium and releasing high-energy neutrons and heat. This can be orders of magnitude more powerful than the fission primary alone. In some designs, these neutrons also induce additional fission in a surrounding uranium tamper, boosting the yield further.
This process happens in microseconds, with the fission and fusion stages tightly coordinated. The result is a devastating explosion, far exceeding the yield of a fission-only bomb like those used in 1945.

Since this is a hypothetical question, I’ll stop short of speculating on specific designs or yields, as real-world nuclear weapons are highly classified and complex. If you’re curious about a particular aspect—like the physics, historical context, or something else—let me know!


13 posted on 04/21/2025 12:41:07 AM PDT by Jonty30 (I can promise I can land any plane that is in the air, because gravity only moves in one direction.)
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To: GenXPolymath

Good point about the role of magnesium for added heat since at room temperature, hydrogen needs a lot of air to detonate so having it expanded, correctly mixed with air then initiating combustion is quite dicey. That’s why their tidbit about “underwater weapon systems” made me laugh.

The fact that magnesium allows storage of hydrogen by MgH2 is icing on the cake but that’s nothing of a discovery like the CCP wants us to believe. Magnesium hydride has been studied thouroughly in the 70s as a energy storage medium after the first oil shock. It’s probably already in a lot of Western armaments without us knowing it.


14 posted on 04/21/2025 1:12:18 AM PDT by miniTAX
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To: SeekAndFind

I believe there are tablets made of magnesium and hydrogen that are taken as supplements or dissolved in water and drunk as a supplement because the hydrogen acts as an antioxidant.


15 posted on 04/21/2025 1:13:00 AM PDT by UnwashedPeasant (The pandemic we suffer from is not COVID. It is Marxist Democrat Leftism. )
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To: SeekAndFind

I take it this is a handy bomb, like the “neutron” bomb, that Jimmy Carter banned from our arsenal.

“Useful” because there’s no residue or contamination.

Useful for increasing the size and efficacy of China’s Panama Canal. (Or exploding above US territory to create an electronic desert, such as featured in TV’s “Dark Angel”...)


16 posted on 04/21/2025 1:49:43 AM PDT by Does so ("The guilty flee when no man pursueth"....🇺🇦...Dem☭¢rat... ∅ ™ ¿ ¡ ☞≣ ½¼)
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To: miniTAX

Hydrogen is exactly oopposite from what one would want in a fuel air explosive other than it’s wide detonation limit in air. It is buoyant so getting a expanding cloud at ground level is nearly impossible. This is why FAE use propane or ethylene oxide liquids at high pressure but denser than air gasses at STP they make nice large pancake clouds perfect for a FAE detonation. The breakthrough probably is fine dense magnesium powder that is denser than air gets dispensed into a dust cloud that at the same time is rapidly outgasing hydrogen from all those magnesium particles thus forming a large cloud near the ground and since magnesium has a habit of igniting in air with the slightest ignition source itself in dust for also being a high brilliance material = big BOOM. I would take a solid bet this is micron sized magnesium hydrate , that is dispensed into a dust cloud based detonation.


17 posted on 04/21/2025 1:56:39 AM PDT by GenXPolymath
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To: GenXPolymath

“ The breakthrough probably is fine dense magnesium powder that is denser than air gets dispensed into a dust cloud”
*************************************************

“fine” as in tree pollen size?


18 posted on 04/21/2025 2:03:43 AM PDT by House Atreides (I’m now ULTRA-MAGA-PRO-MAX)
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To: rfp1234

So their goal is to have weapons that kill Americans but leave their homes and cities standing? How lowlife creepy - how... ‘Chinese’.


19 posted on 04/21/2025 2:07:46 AM PDT by GOPJ (If 11 million illegals must have 'due process' to be deported - it'll bankrupt our court system.)
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To: SeekAndFind
15 times longer than equivalent TNT blasts

Slower burning than TNT?

20 posted on 04/21/2025 2:26:13 AM PDT by fso301
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