Mushroom cloud over North Korea

The question I would have to ask in regards to detection of a nuclear event, is it possible to detect a fusion event if you have not used a fission device to create it?

My understanding of Hydrogen Bombs is that a fission bomb is used to initiate the fusion event that becomes even bigger. So, if no fission device therefore no fission products to be detected.

Can products of a fusion event only be detected?
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Thus far, nobody has figured out how to trigger a fusion reaction without a fission trigger. It takes a lot of heat and pressure.*

However, I suspect that a pure fusion reaction would produce an EMP too, so it would show up like a sore thumb.



*Well, unless you work at the University of Utah. ;)
 
Test Detection...

There is no air monitoring for radiation or anything else required to detect a nuclear explosion. We have had sats in orbit for decades that will tell us within seconds of any nuke blast anywhere in the world by the VERY unique visible light signatures of the blast. This was big news about 20 years ago when the sats mistook an incoming meteor in the SW Indian Ocean for an offshore South African nuke test. They had to slightly retune the detectors back then. I assume they are much better nowadays.
 
Mushroom cloud

I've been wanting to see a mushroom cloud over all of N. Korea since their capture of the USS Pueblo in 1968. I was in the Naval Security Group (CTR) and had friends on that ship. The Korcoms are still using her for a tourist attraction- if you can believe that any tourists want to go to that miserable country.
 
TexasVet, you wanna place money on that statement?

There is no air monitoring for radiation or anything else required to detect a nuclear explosion. We have had sats in orbit for decades that will tell us within seconds of any nuke blast anywhere in the world by the VERY unique visible light signatures of the blast. This was big news about 20 years ago when the sats mistook an incoming meteor in the SW Indian Ocean for an offshore South African nuke test. They had to slightly retune the detectors back then. I assume they are much better nowadays.
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Go look up the word "AFTAC" on Google or your favorite search engine. While you're looking that up, type in the term "WC-135". Or go here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/aftac/intro.htm

and here:

http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=192

I'll give you a hint. I've been assigned to that unit for nearly 20 years. And the purpose of the WC-135? Hee-hee. It's just one part of the air sampling network designed to detect nuclear events, a seldom-seen network that's been in place thanks to Gen. Eisenhower's landmark orders in 1947. I'm gonna miss being a crewmember when I drop my retirement paperwork next January.


wc-135pic1.jpg
 
Well, a N. Korean representative has recently stated that they have a nuclear capability.

Didn't we go through nearly the same thing with them exactly 10 years ago?
 
Yes, that is why is was so strange to me that we though Iraq was a nuclear threat and North Korea wasn't. I mean, its not like you even needed an intelligence agency to know that they were working on WMDS and were very close to it and they had working reactors. They were obviously more technologically sophisticated.
 
Hmmm. Let's see.... If I'm President of the U.S. and:

I've got a communist country bordering China, and they've got nukes or are close to getting them, along with good delivery systems, and at least part of the credit for that goes to the last occupant of the White House.

I've also one hard-line Islamic country that is developing nukes. We KNOW they are hostile to America.

And then I've got this quasi-Islamic (when it's convenient) dictatorship that is developing nukes.

I REALLY don't want any of these folks getting full nuclear capability. That's just Not Good News!

What to do.... What to do...

I can't do much with a frontal assault on N. Korea. China is unpredictable and has already threatened to nuke Los Angeles, and again thanks to Clinton, they can do it. Besides, messing with that economic picture could throw the entire world into a deep depression, and who knows WHAT political chaos could come out of that? I have to handle this one carefully. I"d have to be stupider than John Kerry to try a military action.

Same kind of thing applies to Iran. Taking them on directly is tantamount to declarling war on all of Islam. Not a smart thing! I've got to find some better way of dealing with them.

Iraq, OTOH, is already under U.N. sanctions, and has been funding terrorism either directly or indirectly. They have no powerful allies, and they are not in the least significant economically. Besides, there's every reason to believe they have been funding Al Queada. No, we don't have proof that will stand up in a court of law, but this isn't about law, this is about war.


Guess who I'm going after with a military solution?
 
Guess who I'm going after with a military solution?
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Yes, but your plan would only address what is rather than what might be. I mean sure, the world is aswarm with death-worshipping psychotics who have Allah's name too oft on their tongues, but we really need to start covering the wouldacouldashouldakindasortamightabeen bases!!!

On a side note I just heard a rumor that all of the old Weathermen Underground operatives are going to burn their AARP cards this afternoon, and start exploding on airplanes. :rolleyes:
 
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IIRC the other purpose of the collection planes is to provide data on the bomb itself. The materials collected will tell the scientists about the architecture, and materials used in the bomb. For example, the Russians first thermonuke was a very different design from the ones used today. Samples collected by the planes told the scientists the design of the bomb, and other data beyond the fact that they had detonated one.
 
The Clinton administration made an agreement with North Korea. Therefore, they can have NO nuclear weapons.

Geoff
Who is amused by silly speculation, I mean the NKs wouldn't lie to Madeline would they? :barf:
 
I believe the administrations fear of Norks having nukes is derived more from the possibility of them selling them to terrorists rather than actually using them against the US. Iran, on the other hand would not hesitate to shoot at US or Israeli interests in the ME.

I also believe that the countries neighboring North Korea are far more concerned with an all out internal collapse of the N.Korean government, and the ensuing panic/chaos/mayhem than anything else.
 
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