On November 1 , 1952 , the Teller – Ulam configuration was tested at full scale in the " Ivy Mike " shot at an island in the Enewetak Atoll , with a yield of 10.4 megatons ( over 450 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki during World War II ) . The device , dubbed the '' Sausage '' , used an extra-large fission bomb as a " trigger " and liquid deuterium — kept in its liquid state by 20 short tons ( 18 metric tons ) of cryogenic equipment — as its fusion fuel , and weighed around 80 short tons ( 70 metric tons ) altogether
Ivy Mike
Ivy Mike
Thermonuclear weapon