Russia's Nukes Probably Don't Work - Here's Why

[IbogaProject]

4. The big Hydrogen ones would likely fail

But their tactical ones are standard explosive detonated ones. Basically the Hydrogen bombs use fusion and the heavy hydrogen used decays and is valuable so it has likely been diverted to other uses by the oligarchs. The non Hydrogen ones are just fission and those I'd guess have longer shelf life. They work by a set of timed explosives push the fission fuel together to make a runaway atomic reaction, and instead of containing it, it just blows up. I don't know if the Soviets ever made neutron bombs, which just spew short lasting radiation and leave little long lasting radiation.