British H-Bomb Detonation (1957)

Britain's first effort at a hydrogen bomb took place on May 15, 1957 when a bomb code-named Short Granite was dropped over Malden Island in the South Pacific Ocean as part of Operation Grapple. Short Granite was a two-staged nuclear weapon that had a predicted yield of about one megaton, which is as powerful as one million tons of TNT. Weighing about 4550 kilograms, this bomb exploded with a power of about 300 kilotons, about a quarter of its designed capability, but most of this was from the secondary stage providing proof of principle. Despite this problem, the British government hailed this test as a successful thermonuclear explosion. While the results of this test were disappointing, the British learned much about radiation implosion in H-bombs. Learn more at http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4414485/Britain-drops-…