[TigerLikesRooster]

Which means they will have more tests. It would also serve their political purpose, too.

If we let this slide, we will have the third and the fourth.... Eventually followed by ones from S. Korea and Japan.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Sam's Army]

Should we be surprised that someone from Yale thought it was “too small”?

[Onelifetogive]

North Korea apparently failed to achieve desired explosiveness in its second nuclear test...

We should drop in a nuke bunker-buster and show them what a big boom feels like.

[TigerLikesRooster]

N. Korea celebrates their 2nd nuclear test at a mass indoor rally.

[theDentist]

Too small.. well I gues we have nothing to worry about. Good thing Obama will make all things right, or we’d still have major cause of concern.

[Carley]

Sure!

not

[silverleaf]

gee, what yield do they need to take out Seoul?

[Nathan Zachary]

"It was too small," he wrote on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, referring to the explosion.

Using what he called standard conversions, Park, a geologist, said North Korea appears to have produced a force of 4 kilotons or less through the test that took place in the northeastern region.

It all depends on how much fuel they used and what the target blast size was, all things this guy doesn't know.

Perhaps they made a bigger blast than planned, using only a small amount of fuel for testing a 3 KT miniaturized weapon and achieved greater efficiency than expected.

I doubt they are gong to supply the world with the data, so we can only speculate. I'd expect the worst.
Making old fat boy type nukes doesn't make much sense and is a big waste of their limited nuclear fuel. They're most likely trying to build modern miniaturized nukes for short the range missile capability they have.

[gandalftb]

Well, this story is off the mark. This was not a Hiroshima type nuke, which was a gun-type uranium, the Little Boy. This was a plutonium implosion-type bomb, like Nagasaki. Why did the writer pick a geologist as their "expert" on nukes?

The yield was very small, about 20% of Nagasaki. It is now suspected that was intentional and in fact planned. They are simply trying to make a nuke small enough for transport by missile and don't care if the yield is low because of portability measures.

A 4 kilo yield air burst at 800 feet would flatten any downtown core.

[dfwgator]

"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!"

[Oatka]

The money quote of the year: "Make no mistake -- an inefficient nuclear weapon is nothing to dismiss."

Gee, ya think?

[SunkenCiv]

Well, not as far as I could throw him:

http://earth.geology.yale.edu/~jjpark/

I am originally from Orange County, California. My interest in the earth sciences began began after the 1971 earthquake in Sylmar, California tossed me from my bed. I was introduced to plate tectonics the following year and was hooked on earth science for life. I received my Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics from Princeton University in 1979, where I worked as a go-fer in the geology department. I gave my first talk at an AGU meeting in 1980, arguing against a theory that large earthquakes could cause observable changes in the Earth’s rotation axis. I received my Doctorate in Earth Sciences in 1985 from the University of California, San Diego. From 1985-1986, I did a post doc at Princeton University and from 1986 I have been on the faculty of Yale University.

more about Park:
http://earth.geology.yale.edu/people/moreinfo.cgi?netid=jjpark

-another source-

Russians overestimate power of North Korean blast ... again
Peter Alford
May 28, 2009
The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25547657-25837,00.htm

NORTH Korea’s nuclear explosion on Monday was far smaller than the initial estimate. The maximum likely yield of the North Korean device was four kilotons (the explosive equivalent of 4000 tonnes of TNT) or less, according to the emerging scientific consensus, rather than the 10-20 kilotons estimated on the day by the Russian Defence Ministry.

[itsahoot]

Park said if North Korea had built a detonator precise enough, it would have obtained a yield of 10-20 kilotons.

Or they could be testing small weapons that they are capable of being carried by their current stock of missiles, which is more probable.

[cranked]

And give a rats arse about the size of NOKOs recent nuclear test blast was how? The point is they have nukes and those nukes can kill millions, no matter there test size. I suppose this same moron, among others, will be covering the same BS when Iran eventually gets around to testing nukes, huh, all the while, missing the point, Iran has joined the ranks of those states that have nuclear weapons.

[SevenofNine]

I wonder if he plan something for Fourth of July weekend where Obama probably be in Hawaii kicking it we watching Twilight Zone on Sci fi channel

[SevenofNine]

I wonder if he plan something for Fourth of July weekend where Obama probably be in Hawaii kicking it we watching Twilight Zone on Sci fi channel

[martin_fierro]

N. Korean nuclear blast probably less powerful than hoped for: Yale scholar

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?"