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N. Korea says it conducts successful powerful H-bomb test
Associated Press ^ | January 5th, 2016 | By FOSTER KLUG and KIM TONG-HYUNG

Posted on 01/05/2016 8:26:48 PM PST by Mariner

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea said Wednesday it had conducted a hydrogen bomb test, a defiant and surprising move that, if confirmed, would put Pyongyang a big step closer toward improving its still-limited nuclear arsenal.

A television anchor read a typically propaganda-heavy statement on state TV that said North Korea had tested a "miniaturized" hydrogen bomb, elevating the country's "nuclear might to the next level" and providing it with a weapon to defend against the United States and its other enemies.

The statement said the test was a "perfect success."

The test, if confirmed by outside experts, will lead to a strong push for new, tougher sanctions at the United Nations and further worsen already abysmal relations between Pyongyang and its neighbors.

North Korean nuclear tests worry Washington and others because each new blast is seen as pushing North Korea's scientists and engineers closer to their goal of an arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the United States.

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; dprk; hbomb; hydrogenbomb; japan; korea; nknukes; nkorea; norks; northkorea; obamalegacy; pyongyang; republicofkorea; test; trump; trumpwasright; worldwarthree
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To: dr_lew
IIRC, those are actually not fusion enhanced, but are fission enhanced devices which use heavy water or heavy hydrogen or neutron reflectors to improve the neutron cross section.

That's possible, I guess.

As you know, a thermonuclear weapon is extremely difficult to build; India has some of the best scientists in the world, and it's doubtful that India has produced one. Pakistan almost certainly has not. Nobody except the Soviets ever produced a thermonuclear weapon without significant help from either the US or US-Soviet proxies. [UK, FR, China, Israel.] The Sakharov-Ginzburg designs were inferior, but gave megaton+ yields. Eventually, [we think] they went to the Teller-Ulam design, but Sakharov surely understood fusion well enough to have developed it knowing only the basic concept. The Norks don't have a Teller or a Sakharov.

41 posted on 01/05/2016 10:41:03 PM PST by FredZarguna (Deathblow: "Not because of who you are, but because of different reasons altogether.")
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To: familyop

Thank you very interesting video and Russia’s involvement doesn’t surprise me not one bit.


42 posted on 01/05/2016 10:41:59 PM PST by StoneWall Brigade
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To: TigerLikesRooster

I think it’s somewhat ironic that North Korea’s top negotiatior to South Korea just happens to die in a car werck then week later North Korea, conducts a nuclear test I’m willing to bet that he spoke out against such provocation and kim-jong un had him axed just theory, I could be wrong.


43 posted on 01/05/2016 10:48:02 PM PST by StoneWall Brigade
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To: monkeybrau; SunkenCiv; All

If true, it was probably dug well under the mountain. Is 13 miles far enough away for a town to be with this kind of underground blast? Also, do seismologists give the depth of the epicenter of the quake reported? I know that it was given a score of 5.1. Many years ago when we were testing in Nevada, my aunt in Reno said a few days after a test she and others would feel a little sick. Low grade radiation sickness our government has not acknowledged?


44 posted on 01/05/2016 10:50:42 PM PST by gleeaikin
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To: Mariner
Yes, we have.

The exact number of 50+ KT tests conducted by the United States will never be known, but the Mark 6D Bomb was a pure fission device, with several of the higher end models estimated to be 80KT, 154KT, and 160KT respectively.

We know for sure that Ivy King was a 500KT pure fission test detonation, done in prep before Ivy Mike, the first "Super."

In the typical history of these things, a miniaturized thermonuclear device is never the first test. You would expect a several megaton detonation for the cherry pop.

I think it's almost certainly baloney.

45 posted on 01/05/2016 10:53:24 PM PST by FredZarguna (Deathblow: "Not because of who you are, but because of different reasons altogether.")
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To: StoneWall Brigade

There are also Internet chatters along such a line in S. Korea. You are not alone. However, it remains to be seen if it turns out to be true.


46 posted on 01/05/2016 10:56:52 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
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To: StoneWall Brigade

There are also Internet chatters along such a line in S. Korea. You are not alone. However, it remains to be seen if it turns out to be true.


47 posted on 01/05/2016 10:58:32 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
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To: FredZarguna
"In the typical history of these things, a miniaturized thermonuclear device is never the first test. "

Unless there was a technology transfer.

I stand corrected on the historical size of fission devices. They would have to be huge for that yield.

48 posted on 01/05/2016 11:00:56 PM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18 - Be The Leaderless Resistance)
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To: Mariner
Not good. Not good AT ALL.

As Han Solo says.... I've got a really BAD feeling about this....

49 posted on 01/05/2016 11:02:24 PM PST by ExSoldier ("Terrorists: They hate you yesterday, today, and tomorrow. End it, no more tomorrows for them!)
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To: StoneWall Brigade; TigerLikesRooster

NK likes to fire off a big blast after a failure so that they save face.

In this case, the NK submarine missile launch was rumored to have failed, so...Boom!

The problem with NK’s nuclear test is that the world has been destabilized in the past 6 years. Crimea is Russian. Ukraine is in civil war. The entire Middle East is on fire. China is declaring a No Fly Zone over its new islands. Iran now has a sanctioned nuclear program and Saudi Arabia is negotiating with Russia, Israel, and Pakistan for the Bomb. The PIIGS in the EU are bankrupt, etc.

Meanwhile, Nero’s in Office burning down Rome. History repeats.


50 posted on 01/05/2016 11:05:28 PM PST by Southack (The one thing preppers need from the 1st World? http://tinyurl.com/ktfwljc .)
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To: Mariner

“I don’t think we have ever seen a 45KT fission weapon.”

The largest pure-fission bomb ever constructed (Ivy King) had a 500 kiloton yield.


51 posted on 01/05/2016 11:05:58 PM PST by BeauBo
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To: gleeaikin

I think they’d made this claim in past years, always turned out to be nonsense. About ten years ago a subt blast was picked up on seismometers and I don’t recall if it was ever explained, *may* have been a ‘work accident’ in one of the Norks’ underground research places. Another Clinton/Carter/Obama success story — but the Chinese may be pretty pissed if this H-bomb turns out to be a real deal instead of some propaganda. Thanks glee’.


52 posted on 01/05/2016 11:16:55 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: Mariner

“I stand corrected on the historical size of fission devices. They would have to be huge for that yield.”

Not really.


53 posted on 01/05/2016 11:19:34 PM PST by BeauBo
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To: Mariner
An American eight-inch W33 nuclear artillery shell, with a yield of 40 kilotons.

(TX-33Y2 Test in Operation Nougat Aardvark on May 12, 1962) A gun-type fission device.


54 posted on 01/05/2016 11:34:40 PM PST by BeauBo
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To: Mariner

If NK has it, Iran has it. The Iran deal is going to cost a lot of lives. Remember who voted to give obumber a free hand to make any deal he wanted with Iran?


55 posted on 01/05/2016 11:37:18 PM PST by JoSixChip
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To: Mariner
Unless there was a technology transfer.

I don't believe the Russians would transfer thermonuclear technology to the North Koreans. Nuclear, yes. Big Stuff, no.

And the Chinese would certainly not do it, they got the destabilization of US interests they wanted with the initial nuclear transfers. Remember, far more damaging to us than even "H-bombs" is deliverability. If the Russians or Chinese were really serious about arming NoKorea the Norks would not be working on improving Scuds; they would already have gotten ballistic missile tech.

56 posted on 01/05/2016 11:45:49 PM PST by FredZarguna (Deathblow: "Not because of who you are, but because of different reasons altogether.")
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To: gleeaikin

I don’t think so, but even underground testing is now so long ago that any data would be hard to find. If the two are related, it *may* have been something that is effective in really small doses and took a few days to drift up out of the hole. It took a while to figure out how deep to bury the bombs, luckily that research was done at Bikini Atoll, away from over 99% of humanity. During the biggest of those tests, the island (which was only coral) where the bomb had been deeply buried vanished, leaving only a submerged stump; all the ships (including captured WWII-era Japanese vessels and subs, and obsolete retired US ships) in the lagoon for the test, sank. The yield was a good bit higher than expected.


57 posted on 01/05/2016 11:48:19 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: Mariner

The White House just told us they didn’t have a hydrogen bomb.


58 posted on 01/06/2016 12:19:01 AM PST by kaehurowing
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To: Mariner

Obama must have the worse timing in the world. Right on his big gun control day, the norks dentonate a nuclear weapon. Perhaps he should have been worried about the millions the North Koreans will kill, instead of crying over a few kids.


59 posted on 01/06/2016 12:20:32 AM PST by justa-hairyape (The use of the name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: Mariner
And, I don't think we have ever seen a 45KT fission weapon.

The amount of energy released by fission bombs can range from the equivalent of just under a ton of TNT, to upwards of 500,000 tons (500 kilotons) of TNT.

-Wikipedia

Regards,

60 posted on 01/06/2016 12:30:36 AM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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