Bomb

Year

Yield

Design

Implementation

Fuel

Significance

Trinity

1945

20 kilotons

Implosion

Compression by high explosive

Plutonium

First fission bomb.

Hiroshima

1945

13 kT

Gun assembly

Assembly of critical mass

U235

First uranium bomb. First nuclear weapon used in war. Simple design did not require a test shot

Nagasaki

1945

21 kT

Implosion

Compression by high explosive

Plutonium

Joe-1

1949

20 kT

Implosion

Compression by high explosive

Plutonium

First soviet fission bomb. Plans stolen from Los Alamos by Fuchs

Mike

1952

10 megatons

2-stage radiation implosion

Bomb casing focuses Xrays from fission stage to implode light element fuel in the fusion stage (Teller-Ulam design)

Liquid deuterium

First thermonuclear (fusion) bomb

Layer Cake (Joe-4)

1953

400 kT

Boosted fission

Layers of U238 and light element fuel alternate between fission element and high explosive (Sakharov design)

Lithium deuteride and tritium

First soviet thermonuclear bomb; class of boosted fission device; fusing light element neutrons accelerate fission while the fissioning U238 compresses the light element fuel, accelerating fusion

Bravo

1954

15 MT

2-stage radiation implosion

Bomb casing focuses Xrays from fission stage to implode light element fuel

Lithium deuteride

Most powerful US bomb ever tested.

Joe-19

1955

1.5 MT

2-stage radiation implosion

Bomb casing focuses Xrays from fission element to implode light element fuel

First soviet 2-stage thermonuclear bomb; design discovered independently

Tsar Bomb

1961

50 MT

3 stage radiation implosion

Same as 2-stage but the second fusion stage is used to implode a larger third light element stage

Most powerful bomb ever tested.