Jolly Roger
Yes. I am a Pirate.
Fvckin' A.......sadly....
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North Korean Nuke Test
- Thread starter robav8r
- Start date
Fvckin' A.......sadly....
Sorry folks I meant WC-135's - not Hercs but 707's aka : "Constant Pheonix"
http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=192
The way this was depicted on the news was that the thing was taking air samples through its IFR receptacle (or whatever those AF homos call it) - laughable. Anyway, emphasizing again that I am not a nuclear scientist, but it seems optimistic to think that we'd be able to detect radiation from an underground test from which no radiation was allegedly released. I'm sure there are conditions under which this would be possible, hence the overhead and aircraft based systems, but I get the sense that there's a lot of science fiction assumptions being made about our capabilities in this area.
Brett
Don't know why everyone is so suprised -- most news websites will tell you that we believed the NKs had something like 6-8 weapons. Even though a 0.8 kT weapon will still ruin anyone's day, this test shows that they haven't mastered high order detonation. Besides, with a small arsenal -- they just wasted one. That means there is one less for us to find or for crazies to get a hold of.
:censored_ you
Absolutely yes, slam dunk, when do we invade?
On the serious side, their "nukes" would be very primitive and thus they would be very "dirty", that is; lots and lots of radiation. Not that there are many "clean" nukes around, other than the neutron. My point being yeild is one dimension, radiation another.
Don't confuse tests with warheads and draw conclusions about their capabilities. Most tests are necessarily very low yeild, including our own.
Brett
You are absolutely right here about alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. Assuming it was an underground test, all this would be blocked. However, these are not the only byproducts. Xrays would be readily detectible as would the electromagnetic disturbance created by even an underground detonation. I don't know what our explicit capabilities are in this area but simple physics says...
I imagine there's a way to differentiate a conventional explosion from a nuclear one based on the difference in brisance between the two. I don't know how you would/could look at that from an instrumentation POV, but there are some pretty clever folks at Livermore/Sandia National Labs, etc.
Brett
Brett
Richthofen
Registered User
Never been proud. yet,
never been ashamed of my heritage like this before.:icon_rage
never been ashamed of my heritage like this before.:icon_rage
