At 18:00 02/14/2005, Howard Brazee wrote: >Carla Hunt wrote: > > would it be accurate to say that "nuclear weapons" are more a > > catagory and "atomic weapons" are a type of weapon in that catagory? > >I wouldn't say that. "Atomic weapons" is simply an older term for "nuclear >weapons". When that expression was in wide use, the weapon being referred >to was a fusion bomb. At about the time when the fission bomb >(thermonuclear bomb) came into being, the press started referring replacing >all references to "atomic" with regards to weapons and power plants with >"nuclear". Sure you didn't reverse the meanings of "fission" and "fusion"? The original "Atomic" bombs were fission bombs. The "Hydrogen" bomb is a fusion bomb. -- Regards, Pete pgranzeau at cox.net