Hypercube

Incidentally, does anyone know whether Lithium triteride is a real substance? I mean, obviously the strength ascribed to the metal it in the book is total bunk, as I know perfectly well that the part about the NOVA bomb temporarily containing nine thermonuclear explosions is speculative to the point of absolute lunacy. But does the chemical ion 'triteride' actually exist? I looked it up on Google and it was inconclusive.

I haven't studied nuclear weapons in any great detail, so if what I'm about to ask seems stupid, just keep that in mind. What difference would it make whether one bomb detonated before the others? Even if the idea of one nuke setting off other nukes in the vicinity is pure Hollywood (and I do know that much), wouldn't the fact that in the fictional weapon I described, all of the nine individual nukes that make it up are within extremely close proximity (presumably within several feet of one another, if that) of each other render that point moot? Since it was my understanding that the size, and by extension the yield, of a nuclear device is determined by the mass of Plutonium that is used. So wouldn't the Plutonium of the other 8 nukes simply contribute to the chain reaction just the same as if they had all detonated, especially considering that in this fictional NOVA bomb, the nine nukes are temporarily contained in some sort of superstrong material?

I just finished reading the novels for the Halo franchise a little while ago and I was very intrigued about one of the weapons that the humans have developed. They called it the NOVA bomb, and while we aren't told very much about it, it is basically a cluster of fusion warheads encased in some sort of fictional super-strong material that is able to temporarily contain the nuclear explosions, supposedly increasing its thermonuclear yield a hundredfold. Though I can't for the life of me understand how this would have any effect whatsoever on the power of the bomb. All we really know about its properties and effects comes from the following quote: "This is the prototype NOVA bomb, nine fusion warheads encased in lithium triteride armor. When detonated, it compresses its fissionable material to neutron-star density, boosting the thermonuclear yield a hundredfold. I am Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, temporarily in command of the UNSC military base Reach. To the Covenant uglies that might be listening, you have a few seconds to pray to your damned heathen gods. You all have a nice day in hell..." A heartbeat later Vice Admiral Whitcomb's ploy of slipping the UNSC prototype Nova bomb into Covenant supplies had finally paid off: a star ignited between Joyous Exultation and its moon. Every ship not protected on the dark side of the planet boiled and vaporized in an instant. The atmosphere of the planet wavered as helical spirals of luminescent particles lit both north and south poles, making curtains of blue and green ripple over the globe. As the thermonuclear pressure wave spread and butted against the thermosphere, it heated the air orange, compressed it, until it touched the ground and scorched a quarter of the world. The tiny nearby moon Malhiem cracked and shattered into a billion rocky fragments and clouds of dust. The overpressure force subsided, and three-hundred-kilometer-per-hour winds swept over Joyous Exultation, obliterating cities and whipping tidal waves over its coastlines. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm assuming the idea is that by temporarily containing the initial nine nuclear explosions, all the energy of the combined explosions is released all at the same instant when they finally break free of the armor, as opposed to over the course of several seconds as is the case for normal nuclear warheads. But anyway, given the information provided about this fictional weapon, does anyone know whether there is any truth at all to this idea, ASSUMING that there was some kind of material durable enough to temporarily contain a series of nuclear explosions, which obviously there isn't, but just assume that there was. Or is it just pure nonsense?