Tsetse primary
According to researcher Chuck Hansen, the
Tsetse was the common design nuclear fission bomb core for a number of Cold War designs for American nuclear and
thermonuclear weapons.
Primary is the technical term for the fission bomb component of a thermonuclear or fusion bomb, which is used to start the reactions going and implode and detonate the second, fusion stage.
Hansen's research indicates that the
Tsetse primary was used in the US
B43 nuclear bomb,
W44 nuclear warhead,
W50 nuclear warhead,
B57 nuclear bomb, and
W59 nuclear warhead.
Historical evidence indicates that these weapons shared a reliability problem, which Hansen attributes to miscalculation of the reaction cross section of
Tritium in fusion reactions. The weapons were not tested as extensively as some prior models due to a mid-1960s nuclear test moratorium, and the reliability problem was discovered and fixed after the moratorium ended. This problem was apparently shared by the
Python primary designs.
Characteristics of these weapons are:
| Tsetse primary based nuclear weapons | | Model | Max Yield (kt) | Diameter (in) | Length (in) | Weight (lb) |
| B43 | 1,000 | 18 | 150-164 | 2,060 |
| W44 | 10 | 13.75 | 25.3 | 170 |
| W50 | 400 | 15.4 | 44 | 410 |
| B57 | 20 | 14.75 | 118 | 490 |
| W59 | 1,000 | 16.3 | 47.8 | 550 |
|
Based on this information it can be assumed that the Tsetse design itself corresponds to the size of the W44 warhead, 13.75 inches diameter and 25.3 inches long, with a weight of around 170 pounds.
*
List of nuclear weapons*
Teller-Ulam design*
Python primary*
Beware the old story by Chuck Hansen,
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March/April 2001 pp. 52-55 (vol. 57, no. 02)
