Nuclear technology the element plutonium possesses an isotope that is sufficiently unstable for this process to be usable. Terrestrial plutonium does not currently occur naturally in sufficient quantities for such use, so it must be manufactured in a nuclear reactor. Ultimately, the Manhattan Project manufactured nuclear weapons based on each of these elements. They detonated the first nuclear weapon in a test code-named "Trinity", near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. The test was conducted to ensure that the implosion method of detonation would work, which it did. A uranium bomb, Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city Hiroshima on
B46 nuclear bomb B46 nuclear bomb The B46 nuclear bomb (or Mk-46) was an American high-yield thermonuclear bomb which was designed and tested in the late 1950s. It was never deployed. Though originally intended to be a production design, the B46 ended up being only an intermediate prototype which was test fired several times. These prototypes were known as TX-46 units (Test/Experimental). The B46 design roughly weighed 8,120 pounds and was about 37 inches in diameter. It was intended to have a 9 megaton yield. The design history of the B46 apparently derives most immediately from the older, larger Mark 21 nuclear bomb