Whatever the actual components of the so-called Teller – Ulam design and the respective contributions of those who worked on it , after it was proposed it was immediately seen by the scientists working on the project as the answer which had been so long sought . Those who previously had doubted whether a fission-fusion bomb would be feasible at all were converted into believing that it was only a matter of time before both the USA and the USSR had developed multi-megaton weapons . Even Oppenheimer , who was originally opposed to the project , called the idea " technically sweet . " Though he had helped to come up with the design and had been a long-time proponent of the concept , Teller was not chosen to head the development project ( his reputation of a thorny personality likely played a role in this ) . In 1952 he left Los Alamos and joined the newly established Livermore branch of the University of California Radiation Laboratory , which had been created largely through his urging . After the detonation of Ivy Mike , the first thermonuclear weapon to utilize the Teller – Ulam configuration , on November 1 , 1952 , Teller became known in the press as the " father of the hydrogen bomb . " Teller himself refrained from attending the test — he claimed not to feel welcome at the Pacific Proving Grounds — and instead saw its results on a seismograph in the basement of a hall in Berkeley
Ivy Mike
Ivy Mike
Edward Teller