Suppose we have a nuke as strong as tsar bomb in space. can we somehow contain the explosion? the same way we contain plasma in fusion reactors.
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1$\begingroup$ Neither the gammas nor the neutrons, the primary energy output, are 'containable' like a plasma. $\endgroup$– Jon CusterMay 9, 2021 at 19:39
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1$\begingroup$ Note, that the explosion of a nuclear weapon in the vacuum of space would look much smaller than if the same weapon were exploded in Earth's atmosphere. The amount of energy released would be the same, but in vacuum, almost all of that energy would be carried away by radiation (i.e., by Jon Custer's "gammas and neutrons.") In atmosphere, the surrounding air absorbs, and is heated by that radiation. The "blast" and the "fireball," which do most of the damage on the ground, are due to the sudden expansion of something approaching a billion cubic meters of super-heated air. $\endgroup$– Solomon SlowMay 10, 2021 at 2:34
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The fusion reactors currently under development ignite only a microscopically small sample of fuel at a time. The energy release of the tsar bomba was unimaginably bigger (50 megatons TNT equivalent) and despite being detonated 4 km off the ground, its shock wave and thermal blast scoured the ground right down to bedrock and glazed it.
Wikipedia has a good entry about this bomb and after reading it you can safely conclude that there is nothing within human capacity that could be invented to contain a blast of that size in space- or on the ground.
answered May 9, 2021 at 21:41