From the archive record
Ivy Mike was the codename given to the first test of a thermonuclear device, in which part of the explosive yield comes from nuclear fusion. It was detonated on November 1, 1952, by the United States on Enewetak, an atoll in the Pacific Ocean, as part of Operation Ivy. The device was the first full test of the Teller-Ulam design, a staged fusion bomb, and was the first successful test of a hydrogen bomb. Due to its physical size and fusion fuel type (cryogenic liquid deuterium), the Mike device was not suitable for use as a weapon; it was intended as an extremely conservative experiment to validate the concepts used for multi-megaton detonations. _________________________ Operation Teapot was a series of fourteen nuclear test explosions conducted at the Nevada Test Site in the first half o