On November 1 , 1952 , the Teller – Ulam configuration was tested 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 tons of cryogenic equipment — as its fusion fuel , and weighed around 80 tons altogether . Though an initial press blackout was attempted , it was soon announced that the U.S. had detonated a megaton-range hydrogen bomb
Ivy Mike
Ivy Mike
History of the Teller–Ulam design