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Published online 26 May 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/459491a
North Korea's bigger blast
Monitors rush to confirm test of nuclear bomb.
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Are we planning for an stone age???
The evaluation of the success of the N. Korean test appears to be (at least in part) dependent on an accurate estimate of yield. With that in mind, what are the *minimum* yields of Pu-239 or U-235 devices that are technically feasible for an emerging nuclear power? I presume there must be a lower limit, otherwise states wishing to evade the NTB treaty could avoid detection by simply testing very low-yield devices.
These militar and nuclear exercises, only signifying something else that the discontrol of beligerant armistice in all the world, specially in countries like Iran, Pakistan and India from calling the third world whose taking the advertencies from the 10th poweful group like joke, amusement and render harmless: coup de grâce for this poor humanity.
So North Korea tested an atomic bomb with power comparable to the ones dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki some 64 years ago. But why suddenly all the alarm and near ?panic?, after all, a good number of nations still have huge stockpiles of the very much more destructive hydrogen and neutron bombs? If even a small portion of these lethal arsenals were to be ignited, there goes the beautiful blue planet. The world should not be unduly worried about the proliferation of nuclear weapons to the rogue states or terrorists, for such covert activity has already been going on for years, even under the supposedly watchful eyes of international agency and intelligence. Moreover, widely accessible modern advanced technology would have enabled any nation or group of extremists with the right materials to construct a nuclear weapon with ease. (Tan Boon Tee)