Orange Herald
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Orange Herald was the name of a British nuclear weapon of the 1950s.
[edit] Technical
Orange Herald was a fusion boosted British fission nuclear weapon, comprising a U-235 primary surrounded by Lithium deuteride. 'Herald' was suitable for mounting on a missile, utilizing 117 kg of U-235. However, Britain's annual production of U-235 was only 120 kg at this time, which would have made such weapons rare and very expensive.
This nuclear device yielded 720 kT of explosive power on 31 May 1957, during the Grapple 2/Orange Herald tests on Malden Island in the Pacific. Orange Herald remains the largest fission device ever tested. It is thought that the fusion boosting failed to increase the yield.
Orange Herald was the first British nuclear device to use an external neutron source. [1]
Britain rushed the development of these predicted-megaton class weapons because in 1955 it seemed that atmospheric testing could soon be outlawed by treaty. As a result, the UK wanted to demonstrate its ability to manufacture megaton class weapons by proof-testing them before any legal prohibitions were in place.
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