Posted on 10/10/2006 2:28:23 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
N Korea expected N-test to yield a 4 kilotonne blast
AFP
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 11:39 IST
WASHINGTON: North Korea expected its nuclear test to yield a blast of about four kilotonnes, US media reported on Tuesday. "The North Koreans, in a call to the Chinese shortly before the test was conducted, said it would be four kilotonnes," the Washington Post reported, citing an unnamed US government official.
"A senior Bush administration official said he had learned through Asian contacts that the North Koreans had expected the detonation to have a force of about four kilotonnes," The New York Times said.
US intelligence detected an explosion of less than one kilotonne in magnitude, a senior intelligence official said on Monday, after North Korea announced that it had conducted an underground nuclear test.
Seismologists recorded a big blast from a remote northeastern area of the isolated communist country.
US and South Korean authorities have since been trying to verify whether it was a nuclear test and, if so, whether or not it was a success.
The nuclear bomb that the United States dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 had a force of 15 kilotonnes.
So it is between 1/8 and 1/5 of intended yield. It was not successful, I think.
Ping!
Who really thinks they could mount one of these on an ICBM and hit a US target? I guess the real issue is, the guy is definitely crazy enough to proceed with the test when they don't know what their doing.
Do I think he could do that? No, I seriously doubt that he could do that.
Do I think that they could put one in a shipping container and get it into the US some how and get that into a city center? There's my concern.
Maybe the Lord told an Angel, you know the same God that created billions of stars with trillions times more energy than the biggest Hydrogen bomb man could ever conceive, and said "Go down there and make this man look like the impotent clown he is."
You are off by 3 orders of magnitude.
The blast was propagandized as 4 KILO tons, not 4 MEGA tons.
It didn't even yield it's BS little dinky-a@@ pop-off amount.
Probably only a conventional blast at that.
Only problem is that in being so inefficient, it's also going to be a very dirty yield. I would still hate to see four hundred tons of explosives going off downtown.
Tip...Kilo is three units of magnitude lower than Mega.
Think about that. How would you even be able to get 400 tons of conventional explosives down town?
Just tell the mayor it's fireworks for the big gay parade and he'll probably help you carry it.
Considering the number of radiation detectors placed in various places to alert for such stuff trying to pass a bridge, tunnel, or highway, it would be a lot easier, and do more damage, to arrange to have a dozen gasoline tankers explode in downtown during rush hour
Oh....I misread it.
That's something that I think a lot of people completely overlook. You don't need a missile if you have FedEx (or some other shipping outfit).
Is it even possible to have a nuclear blast of only 500 tons? And if so, is it likely that Kim's scientists could figure out how to do it?
My suspicion is that he used 500 tons of TNT in order to make it look like a nuke blast.
I can think of two reasons he might do this: 1) he doesn't have the bomb, or 2) (more likely) he doesn't want to expend his plutonium on a test.
At this point, it would be pure luck to hit the US. He could hit Seoul, though, if he could put it in a missile at all, which I question.
Read the headline of this thread again. N Korea expected N-test to yield a 4 kilotonne blast.
Now - how hard would it be to get 400 tons of explosives downtown? Sure - there's radiation detectors - but they're not everywhere - I wonder if Mascoutah, Illinois has radiation detectors in it? The weapon doesn't have to be transported intact, the fissile material can be transported in shielded containers and assembled in place.
Don't forget they went out of their way to announce "no radiation leakage."
Was it as big as the train explosion a few years back ? There was speculation that was a nuke also because of the seismic readings .
Sounds like they put 4000 tons of TNT into a hole and lit the fuse. Incomplete detonation can be a b!tch. They probably want to be pretty careful about sending anybody else down that hole.
I will believe this is a nuke when they start getting radiation readings in Japan. We should know by the end of the week.
In the mean time, I am taking bets that this one is conventional.
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