The 62-ton Ivy Mike device built by the United States and exploded on 1 November 1952 , was the first fully successful " hydrogen bomb " or thermonuclear bomb . In this context , it was the first bomb in which most of the energy released came from nuclear reaction stages that followed the primary nuclear fission stage of the atomic bomb . The Ivy Mike bomb was a factory-like building , rather than a deliverable weapon . At its center , a very large cylindrical , insulated vacuum flask or cryostat , held cryogenic liquid deuterium in a volume of about 1000 liters ( 160 kilograms in mass , if this volume had been completely filled ) . Then , a conventional atomic bomb ( the " primary " ) at one end of the bomb was used to create the conditions of extreme temperature and pressure that were needed to set off the thermonuclear reaction
Ivy Mike
Ivy Mike
Deuterium