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Posted on 04/25/2018 9:58:22 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
North Korea’s nuclear test site has collapsed ... and that may be why Kim Jong-un suspended tests
The mountain’s collapse after a fifth blast last fall has led to the creation of a massive ‘chimney’ that could leak radioactive fallout into the air, researchers have found
North Korea’s mountain nuclear test site has collapsed, putting China and other nearby nations at unprecedented risk of radioactive exposure, two separate groups of Chinese scientists studying the issue have confirmed.
The collapse after five nuclear blasts may be why North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared on Friday that he would freeze the hermit state’s nuclear and missile tests and shut down the site, one researcher said.
The last five of Pyongyang’s six nuclear tests have all been carried out under Mount Mantap at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in North Korea’s northwest.
One group of researchers found that the most recent blast tore open a hole in the mountain, which then collapsed upon itself. A second group concluded that the breakdown created a “chimney” that could allow radioactive fallout from the blast zone below to rise into the air.
A research team led by Wen Lianxing, a geologist with the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, concluded that the collapse occurred following the detonation last autumn of North Korea’s most powerful thermal nuclear warhead in a tunnel about 700 metres (2,296 feet) below the mountain’s peak.
The test turned the mountain into fragile fragments, the researchers found.
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
Yeah, but that only killed people who were in the USSR space program.
The NK nuke program has apparently poisoned water supplies out to a considerable distance from the testing location due to radionuclide leaching into the groundwater aquifer, as well as by atmospheric releases.
China is very unhappy with NK because of radiation that has come across the border into Liaoning and Jilin provinces. Chinese people have been warned not to eat local produce, including vegetables grown in private plots, balcony gardens, etc.
“we already cant afford what we do have.”
Since when my FRiend?
Not sure that orbit is needed. If a KEP is delivered from the stratosphere or above would it need to be a 20 ton projectile? Terminal velocity would probably be a given and the projectile would be sized for the mission. Could be done without encroaching on their airspace (toss bombing) and if done with stealth tech, what would anybody know except for something that has multiple possible explanations.
No knowledge, just speculation!
Do you mean to tell me that wasn't caviar (fish roe) I ate?
Elaborate? Moi?
If I shared my sources, I'd have to kill you...
Seriously, I live in New Mexico - home to Los Alamos Labs, Sandia Labs, and AFOTEC.
People talk. No details, per se, but...
Good observation on the hypersonic vs RFG “solutions”.
I’d say that RFG are more for “quiet hits”, like the NK nuke mountain - sure others might figure out what happened, but closer to “plausible deniability” than a hyper-cruise missile.
FYI: launching 3 RFGs via SpaceX Falcon Heavy cost $30M each, or 1 via Falcon 9 for $62M.
The tungsten itself per RFG is around $800,000.
Well, all I can tell you is that I work on some expensive systems for the govt. Money, allocation of it, not having enough to do everything the customer wants, and trying to get to the place where the contractor can justify staying in the business while providing the value the customer needs, its all a balancing act that gets played out. So some programs get funding and others do not. If the customer had unlimited funds, they could get everything they wanted and of course the contractors would be happy to provide everything they want. But limited funds is the reality.
If the Navy had all the money they wanted we would still have a 15 Carrier, 360 ship navy. If the Airforce had all the money it wanted, every airplane would be either an F-22 or a B-2, and anything else would be subcontracted out since all the Air Force really wants to do is fly fighters (had to get that jab in). If the Army got everything it wanted we would have the Spec Ops guys we have today AND the 60 ton tank forces we had during the cold war.
That’s all I am saying. I wont go into specifics regarding space, but the same trades have to occur, and when systems cost a billion dollars each, you just don’t get everything you want.
Haliburton/Blackwater/Koch- just my code name designed to aggravate the enemy..
Well, I’ve run thru the numbers here. It’s cheap to do (maybe $50M per RFG), but the capacity for launch has been quite limited and nearly impossible to conceal. We’d know by now.
I have spent time at the labs there and know a lot about what goes on there. I also know we don’t have RFG deployed and why, though Ill be willing to admit that a lot of Reagans 80’s star wars work was done at those labs.
This is the limiting factor for KEP. If you rely on kinetic energy only, did you know that the terminal velocity for even a 1000 kg object the size of a small refrigerator dropped from space (17000 mph orbit speed) is slowed to less than 200 mph by the atmosphere by the time reaches the surface? When you do the sims using the physics, its harder to make a KE weapon effective than it might seem. (This is also why we are well protected against most meteor threats.)
Good speculating.
I was fixating on the “tungsten telephone pole” analogy, so followed the numbers re: a 20 ton mass.
Even at 1 ton, lift capacity is a problem - rockets are high-visibility, and I’m sure others have means of getting a good look at a long, thin, mostly featureless satellite that just hangs there.
Then that object disappears from orbit, minutes before a gaping crater appears at a notorious site. Pretty clear what happened, even if it can’t be proven per se.
Anything much less than 1 ton probably fast loses the point/expense of putting it up there. Impact becomes comparable to comparable-cost weapons which can impact much faster (vs awaiting orbital positioning).
Like solar power and EVs, RFGs have their problems but are tantalizingly attractive in their very simplicity (well, to some of us).
There is also the issue of my post 71
Decades... and centuries.
The entire span of our country is less than just the Han dynasty.
What about turning it into a “Disney Bomb” for that extra oomph?
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There is a pic somewhere on Pinterest that shows Kim Jong-un with the message “If you want to get rid of him, just leak that he has incriminating info on the Clintons”.
XB37/Still too small, to get the tonnage up and fit the weapon in.
Note to President Trump: Kim jong-un is NEVER honest.
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