I’ve no idea how much reliance to put upon this story but via Damian Penny at Daimnation, this at DefenseTech. The North Korean test was a dud? A fizzle?:
But even at 4.2, the test was probably a dud.
??????????????
3.58-3.7
gives you a couple hundred tons (not kilotons), which is pretty close
in this business unless you’re really math positive. The same equation,
given the US estimate of 4.2, yields (pun intended) around a kiloton.
A plutonium device should produce a yield in the range of the 20 kilotons, like the one we dropped on Nagasaki. No one has ever dudded their first test of a simple fission device. North Korean nuclear scientists are now officially the worst ever.
Of course, I want to see what the US IC says. If/when the test
vents, we could have some radionuclide data — maybe in the next 72
hours or so.
But, from the initial data, I’d say someone with no workable nuclear weapons (Kim Jong Il, I am looking at you) should be crapping his pants right now.
First the missile, then the bomb. Got anything else you wanna try out there, chief?
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