system
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human
Would a thermonuclear bomb be more powerful if it used an heavier element?

So i recently read about the H-Bomb out of curiosity, and from what i understand the way it works is by fusing the hydrogen nucleus, having a small percentage of its mass turn into a ridiculous amount of energy which becomes the explosion. Supposedly the reason why hydrogen is used is due to it being easier to fuse, but hypothetically, if we were able to easily fuse heavier elements, would the resulting explosion be more powerful?
gpt
The Coulomb barriers (how hard it is to make them fuse) get much higher, but the Q-values (how much energy is released per reaction) don’t really get larger, and in fact can even get smaller.

The larger Coulomb barrier is a big problem. Even if each reaction released more energy, if they’re happening at a much smaller rate due to the higher Coulomb barrier, then it’s a net loss.

That’s why almost all man-made applications of fusion are using hydrogen fuel (deuterium and tritium).

And specifically for weapons, one of the main draws to the DT fusion reaction is not the energy that it produces directly, but the 14 MeV neutron it produces, which can then induce fission. The relevant fission reactions release ~10 times more energy per reaction than the relevant fusion. So while the fusion releases some energy itself, it can *cause more fission*, and that’s where you get real gains.