Abnormal Radiation Detected Near Korean Border

For those speculating on nuclear fusion, for power or bombs I would like to point out that, while it is fairly simple it's very in principle it's very complicated in practice... Not least because of the super advanced materials needed to contain the reaction, that's still beyond the most advanced countries (well for a sustained usable reaction that is) - NK is not all that advanced.

Also why would a 'clean' way of producing energy show up as radiation - for instance if you caused hydrogen to fuse your by products are helium and a but load of energy NO radiation at all - that's kinda the point.

As far as a bomb, well then there would be an amount of fall out because the fusion bomb is triggered by a fission bomb, but I remind you that no seismic activity that would suggest a blast...

Nope either sounds like something went wrong, maybe nukes or material was being transported, maybe some of the missiles have been tipped with dirty nuke warheads?

This can not bode well for the NK soldiers. If they are detecting radiation from across the DMZ, that means they've had a containment breach inside NK. This means that potentially hundreds of thousands of people have radiation poisoning.

This sounds like the beginning news of a potentially major humanitarian crisis.

reply to post by Now_Then


While fusion does produce less radiation (far less), it still produces "radiation". It's not so efficient that it wouldn't produce any "radiation" at all.

As far as North Korea achieving any kind of controlled fusion, I have to agree with you that it would seem to be unlikely, however we should never underestimate those North Koreans. Maybe they figured out something that we haven't? You never know. They did say, back in May, that they had achieved the fusion process but how truthful they were or not, is anyone's guess. North Korea likes to exaggerate about this kind of stuff. Even still, I wouldn't underestimate the North Koreans.

--airspoon

Originally posted by airspoon
While fusion does produce less radiation (far less), it still produces "radiation". It's not so efficient that it wouldn't produce any "radiation" at all.

Heat and light radiates! - Just to be clear I am referring to the nasty stuff, your alpha beta and gamma stuffs.

Now that bunch of mess spills out naturally from radioactive material, and much much more when you start tearing apart the atoms (fission) of course you get the energy but you get everything else, new radioactive products, x rays all sorts - that's the messy way we do things now.

Fusion on the other hand, you start with a material that is not radioactive in it's self (2 different types of 'heavy' Hydrogen - deuterium and tritium... Not radioactive) and unless you split those atoms apart (fission) you will not get anything radioactive from them...

If you cause them to under go fusion the nucleus of the atoms remains in tact - well they merge, an extra electron or two is pushed off it's orbit and there is where you get your energy, the remainder has gone from hydrogen to harmless (if not incredibly hot and energetic) Helium - no radiation, no need to shield against radiation (other than heat and light).

Of course a fusion bomb is different, that has a fission element to it - that will cause radiation.

reply to post by Now_Then

Heat and light radiates! - Just to be clear I am referring to the nasty stuff, your alpha beta and gamma stuffs.

That's why I put the "radiation" in quotes, to denote ionizing radiation.

--airspoon

EDIT!!!!!Posted on the wrong thread!!! Sorry.


[edit on 21-6-2010 by mutantgenius]

As another poster said, I wonder if the North Koreans did this on purpose, to sort of puff their chest out or intimidate the South because of the tension due to the torpedoed ship. North Korea is used to making claims and then bargaining with those claims. The US always seems to fall for the bait.

--airspoon

This some story, let it not be true. But you never now what they really do??? :puz

S 4 your post

Situation Update No. 1
On 22.06.2010 at 03:46 GMT+2

Unusually high levels of radiation were detected close to the North Korean border in May not long after Pyongyang declared that it had successfully created a nuclear fusion reaction, the South Korean Science Ministry announced today. The South said it had not been able to figure out what caused the abnormal radiation levels, though the ministry said it was not caused by an underground nuclear explosion which is always followed by a strong, artificial earthquake. There were no signs that one had occurred, the Associated Press reported. In mid-May, Pyongyang asserted that it had achieved the remarkable feat of producing a nuclear fusion reaction -- a process that is required to build a hydrogen warhead. That claim was widely dismissed by foreign nuclear scientists based on the North's limited resources and expertise to accomplish such a feat (see GSN, May 12). On May 15, three days after the North made its fusion announcement, xenon atmospheric levels eight times greater than normal were detected on South Korean territory not far from the border with the North, the Science Ministry said. Xenon gas is released following a nuclear detonation or radioactive leakage from an atomic energy plant. It is not dangerous. Because no earthquake evidence in the North was found by experts, "we determined that there was no possibility of an underground nuclear test," the Science Ministry said. A fusion reaction needs to be carried out at very intense pressure and temperature levels inside a nuclear reactor. These conditions are fostered by exploding a uranium-based bomb, South Korean nuclear expert Whang Joo-ho said.

Pyongyang carried out two underground nuclear weapons tests in 2006 and 2009. An anonymous Science Ministry official said the xenon might have been blown in from China or Russia. He said there was no chance that the gas could have come from leakage at one of the South 's atomic energy sites. The U.N. Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, which searches for indications of nuclear tests across the world, said it had not detected anything that would cause suspicion by the inter-Korean border (Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 21). Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama's administration said Friday that it was weighing levying unilateral financial sanctions on the aspiring nuclear power for the March attack on a South Korean warship, Kyodo News reported. The U.N. Security Council is also considering a Seoul request to rebuke or punish Pyongyang for the torpedo strike against the Cheonan. The North has denied all responsibility for the incident. South Korea has Washington's strong backing on the issue. However, China, a permanent Security Council member, is believed to oppose a harsh U.N. response for the Cheonan incident.
"In light of the sinking of the Cheonan, we're reviewing a range of options as to how we can deliver a message to North Korea,'' U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. ''We have been able to use financial steps to apply pressure on North Korea before, and we're always looking for ways in which we can influence North Korea's behavior,'' he said. Pyongyang has been under heightened U.N. Security Council sanctions for some time now as a result of its missile and nuclear activities. The sanctions have left the already impoverished nation greatly weakened. Crowley said U.S. envoy for Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell had met with officials from South Korea and Japan recently to discuss new financial penalties against the North. "We consult closely with allies on these subjects all the time," Crowley said, indicating that Seoul, Tokyo and Washington would be likely to collaborate on additional sanctions targeting the North (Kyodo News/Newsystocks.com, June 18). No less than three Asian financial institutions, including one Chinese bank, are being considered by the United States for sanctions, a Washington government source said, according to the Korea Herald. The reserves that the North Korean regime has deposited in the financial institutions are thought to be greater than the $25 million deposited in the Banco Delta Asia, which was sanctioned by Washington in 2005 for allegedly aiding a Pyongyang money-laundering scheme, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported (Song Sang-ho, Korea Herald, June 20). Elsewhere, Obama officials are divided over whether to dispatch the USS George Washington aircraft carrier to participate in a maritime drill with the South near the scene of the Cheonan sinking as a demonstration of allied might to North Korea, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

Some in the Obama administration are concerned that the presence of the enormous aircraft carrier would irritate Beijing or lead to fresh hostile actions from the North. Others are arguing that its presence in the Yellow Sea would strongly demonstrate Washington's staunch loyalty to South Korea. "It's a very tough call," former State Department official Susan Shirk said. "You don't want to be too proactive. But you need to send a clear message." A U.S. Defense Department spokesman said a decision had not been reached on the matter. "I think it's a question of the U.S. and South Korea working out what we want to do together and when we want to do it," a high-level Obama official said. He said China would be apprised as to what Washington decides.


[edit on 22-6-2010 by ni91ck]

Continue from above:

Situation Update No. 2
On 22.06.2010 at 04:43 GMT+2

Abnormal radiation was detected near the inter-Korean border days after North Korea claimed last month to have achieved a nuclear technology breakthrough, South Korea's Science Ministry said last night. The ministry said it failed to find the cause of the radiation but ruled out a possible underground nuclear test by North Korea. It cited no evidence of a strong earthquake that must follow an atomic explosion. On May 12, North Korea claimed its scientists succeeded in creating a nuclear fusion reaction - a technology necessary to manufacture a hydrogen bomb. The technology also one day could provide limitless clean energy because it produces little radioactive waste, unlike fission, which powers conventional nuclear power reactors. South Korean experts doubted the North actually made such a breakthrough. Scientists around the world have been experimenting with fusion for decades, but it has yet to be developed into a viable energy alternative. On May 15 the atmospheric concentration of xenon - an inert gas released after a nuclear explosion or radioactive leakage from a nuclear power plant - on the South Korean side of the inter-Korean border was found to be eight times higher than normal, according to South Korea's Science Ministry. South Korea subsequently looked for signs of a powerful, artificially induced earthquake - something that should have been detected if North Korea had conducted a nuclear test. Experts found no signs of a such a quake in North Korea, a ministry statement said.

"We determined that there was no possibility of an underground nuclear test," it said. The ministry did not mention any possible health hazard from the release. Earlier yesterday, South Korea's mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that North Korea may have conducted a small-sized nuclear test, citing the abnormal radioactivity. The paper cited an atomic expert it did not identify. North Korea - which is believed to have enough weaponised plutonium for at least a half-dozen nuclear weapons, conducted two underground nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, drawing international condemnation and United Nations sanctions. The news of the detected radiation comes as tension is running high on the Korean peninsula over the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack. North Korea flatly denies the allegation and has warned any punishment would trigger war, with the UN Security Council reviewing Seoul's request to punish Pyongyang over the sinking. A Science Ministry official said the wind was blowing from north to south when the xenon was detected. But the official said xenon could have come from Russia or China, not necessarily from North Korea, as South Korea was unable to find the reason for the high-level of the gas. The official also said that there was no possibility that the xenon could have originated from any nuclear power plants in South Korea.


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[edit on 22-6-2010 by ni91ck]

Could the NKs have found out how to make the COLD FUSION process work?
Perhaps they have perfected the containment system rquired to make the process feasable?
The leak could indicate they are not exactly on the money yet, but closer than we are?
Never underestimate these people......remember the Japanese almost had the same atomic bomb perfected that we dropped on them in the 2nd w war......
Truth is, the "free" world doesnt know whats going on in NK.
They have been working on their own for so long that they may actually have made such a breakthrough.....
Nesseessity being the mother of invention......its very possible...

event not catagoriced at RSOE

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reply to post by ressiv


Oh yes, you must read it good my friend.

2 06/21/2010 Non-categorized event UEV-20100621-26629-PRK North Korea Unknown Demilitarized Zone

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