Nuclear Weapons Test - 03 September 2017
On 03 September 2016 North Korea said it conducted its most powerful nuclear test of an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile. the DPRK stated "The H-bomb, the explosive power of which is adjustable from tens kiloton to hundreds kiloton, is a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive power which can be detonated even at high altitudes for super-powerful EMP attack according to strategic goals."
In a series of photographs of the Supreme Leader and his acolytes, they are seen hovering over a device that for sure looks like a hydrogen bomb - a two state radiation implosion device.
A 5.7 magnitude artificial earthquake was detected at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site. It was far more powerful than quakes created by its five previous nuclear experiments in the same area in the country's northeastern mountainous province. The scale increased to 5.04 magnitude in September 2016, 4.8 in January of 2016, 4.9 in 2013, 4.5 in 2009 and 3.9 in 2006.
The Korea Meteorological Administration estimated that the explosive yield of the test was five to six times bigger than that of the previous one a year ago. The North's fifth nuclear test is presumed to have triggered a yield of around 10 kilotons. "The blast power is estimated to be more than 50kt this time," said Lee Chun-geun, a researcher at the Science and Technology Policy Institute.
Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University, put it at 60-80kt, short of some 100kt caused by a "real H-bomb." The Japanese Defense Ministry later commented that the yield of the nuclear weapon that had been tested may have been as high as 70 kt, according to preliminarily estimates.
The seismological observatory NORSAR at Kjeller, Norway, detected the latest underground nuclear test by North Korea. NORSAR has recorded signals from an underground nuclear test explosion conducted by North Korea at its Punggye-ri test site on 3 September 2017. NORSAR has estimated the explosive yield at 120 kilotons TNT, based on a seismic magnitude of 5.8.
In a hydrogen bomb, or a thermonuclear weapon, a fission bomb acts as trigger, this is called the primary stage. The x-rays produced by the primary implode the secondary stage, which is loaded with fusion fuel: deuterium and tritium. The fusion reaction produces a much greater yield than that of the primary.
Pyongyang might have tested not a thermonuclear device but a “boosted device”, an atomic bomb that uses some hydrogen isotopes to increase its explosive yield. A boosted fission device uses a small amount of tritium and deuterium to produce a small-scale fusion reaction just as the fission chain reaction begins. The neutrons released by the fusion reactions add to the neutrons released due to fission, allowing for more neutron-induced fission reactions to take place. The rate of fission is thereby greatly increased such that much more of the fissile material is able to undergo fission before the core explosively disassembles.
The first atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima yielded a 13-18 kt blast. The yield of the first thermonuclear fusion bomb ("Ivy Mike"), which the US tested in late 1952, totaled 10.4 megatons. The US tested boosted single state fission bombs with yields up to 500 kilotons. The US fielded two-stage hydrogen bombs with a fraction that yield [ie, H-bombs can have very large yield, but that can also have small yields].
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