The United States may have forgotten how to make FOGBANK: a critical component in at least some thermonuclear weapons. FOGBANK is an ‘interstage material’ that gets turned into a superheated plasma by the detonation of the ‘primary’ fission bomb, helping to ignite the ‘secondary’ fusion reaction.
Some speculate that FOGBANK resembles aerogel. Others describe efforts to re-learn how to make it.
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Russia: Sustaining the Strategic Deterrent
December 11, 2007
Russia insists that it is content with the current pace of the construction of new strategic missiles. But the lack of acceleration in the production rate of the Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile has serious implications.
This passage from Richard Rhodes’ book describes the role of the interstage material in thermonuclear weapons.