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MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
North Korea’s nuclear test
created tremors around the world. Shockwaves were first picked up at a
seismic station 230 miles away in Mudanjiang, China, where the needle
sprang into action less than a minute after the blast. Seconds later,
the tremors reached instruments in South Korea and Japan, and within 12
minutes had been detected in Canada, Australia and at the Eskdalemuir
Observatory in Scotland.
More than 130 stations recorded shockwaves, which after 20 minutes
had reached as far as Argentina 12,000 miles from the test site.
Based on the strength of the tremors, equivalent to a magnitude 6.3
earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey, nuclear weapons
specialists put the yield of the bomb at about 100 kilotons. That is
roughly 10 times more powerful than previous nuclear bombs tested by the
North Koreans, including what was claimed to be another hydrogen bomb
at the same Punggye-ri facility in January 2016.
Analysts have been sceptical that the 2016 test involved a hydrogen
bomb because the energy released was comparatively small, but the latest
test leaves less room for doubt, according to Anne Strømmen Lycke at
Norsar, the Norwegian centre responsible for detecting nuclear tests.
“From the seismic signal alone it’s not possible to tell the
difference between a conventional atomic explosion and a hydrogen bomb,
but when it’s as large as this one, the credibility of the claim that
it’s an H-bomb increases dramatically,” she said.
Hydrogen bombs can be a lot more powerful than conventional atomic
bombs. In conventional atomic bombs, the blast is produced by atoms
being ripped in two. But the fission process is inefficient and the
bombs tend to be big and heavy. H-bombs instead fuse hydrogen atoms
together to create heavier elements, a process that releases far more
energy.
In images released by North Korea,
Kim Jong-un is seen inspecting a device, or perhaps a model of the
bomb, in front of a diagram suggesting that it was small enough to fit
into the nose cone of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Kim Jong-un inspects a device, or perhaps a model of a
bomb, in front of a diagram suggesting its size may be small enough to
fit into an ICBM. Photograph: KCNA/EPA
Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
If the North Koreans have built a 100 kiloton hydrogen bomb, its
explosive power would dwarf that of the US nuclear bombs dropped on
Japan in 1945. Those exploded with an energy of 15 to 20 kilotons.
As
well as its more obvious destructive power, a hydrogen bomb could be
detonated in the atmosphere to release a massive electromagnetic pulse
to knock out electrical devices.
The best hope for confirming North Korea’s claim of testing a
hydrogen bomb comes from sniffer stations around the world that detect
radioactive pollution released by nuclear explosions.
Hydrogen bombs produce all manner of radioactive elements, but
monitors will look specifically for isotopes of a gas called xenon that
can bear the hallmark of H-bomb reactions. Depending on the wind and
other weather conditions, the gases could be detected at stations in
South Korea, Japan, Russia and China.
An answer is not guaranteed though. After the January 2016 test, the
sniffer stations failed to detect the signature of an H-bomb, possibly
because very little gas leaked from the underground test site.
“The radionuclides will only be recorded if there’s leakage from the
site and it spreads out and hits a monitoring station,” said Svein
Mykkeltveit, a special adviser at Norsar. “And even if those
observations are made in the coming days, weeks or months, there is
still the question of whether the specialists will be able to tell the
difference between a fission and a fusion bomb.”
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