In the ensuing fifty years , nobody has come up with a more efficient way to build a nuclear bomb . It is the design of choice for the United States , Russia , the United Kingdom , China , and France , the five thermonuclear powers . On 3 September 2017 North Korea carried out what it reported as its first " two-stage thermo-nuclear weapon " test . According to Dr. Theodore Taylor , after reviewing leaked photographs of disassembled weapons components taken before 1986 , Israel possessed boosted weapons and would require supercomputers of that era to advance further toward full two-stage weapons in the megaton range without nuclear test detonations . The other nuclear-armed nations , India and Pakistan , probably have single-stage weapons , possibly boosted
North Korea carried out
2017 North Korean nuclear test
Nuclear weapon design