Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index A detonator is used to trigger bombs, shaped charges and other forms of explosive device. Detonators are often attached to a timer to ensure that the explosion takes place at the desired time, or when the person laying the explosives has reached a safe distance from the blast. Detonators can be chemical, mechanical, or a combination. Many detonators' primary (sensitive to heat and shock) explosive is a material called tetryl. In a nuclear weapon a nuclear fission bomb is used as detonator to start nuclear fusion reactions. See also Explosive material, Fuse, Nuclear weapon design. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.