North Korea Announces Achieving Nuclear Fusion 372
aftertaf writes "North Korea claims to have achieved nuclear fusion by building what it describes as a 'unique thermo-nuclear reaction device.' This announcement was met by skepticism on just about every news website this side of Saturn. Pyongyang claims its latest scientific breakthrough coincides with the birthday of the country's founder and eternal president Kim Il-sung. This is not the first time it seems that the laws of nature have been bent in his honor. According to official biographies, when his son, Kim Jong-il, was born, a new star appeared in the sky." No doubt the Dear Leader combined the atomic nuclei by hand.
Re:Fusion isn't hard. (Score:2, Insightful)
This was my thought--so what if they did? We did it more than 50 years ago, the Teller-Ulam designed warhead dates to 1951. Fusing two atoms is trivial.
Re:Nuclear Fusion the new softdrink (Score:4, Insightful)
Just out of curiosity, what part of "No peasants are starving, our economy is great, everyone else in the world envies/fears us, and by the way we just perfected nuclear fusion!" is a *mild* hallucination?
Parked? (Score:1, Insightful)
parked in geosynchronous
That's like saying a juggler "parked" a ball in a nice circular pattern of movement.
I think you meant geostationary. This is a lot more like parking, since the satellite would seem to stand still (to an observer on the ground) while the other stars move. Of course, that would make it a bit too conspicuous to be a good spy satellite.
Re:Fusion isn't hard. (Score:5, Insightful)
Nah, they wouldn't be that subtle. Recall that they made a big fuss over "we have the bomb now", only to have their first actual test detonation fizzle.
Besides, if they were testing H-bombs, there would be third party confirmation. They cannot set off a nuke, never mind a big nuke, without setting off seismic detectors from India to California.
Re:Fusion isn't hard. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's also possible they've assembled one of Bussard's whiffleball fusors [rexresearch.com]. Not tremendously complicated, and if you threw a couple hundred million at it (assuming the theory behind it were correct) you might get a practical reactor.
What *Are* They Doing in N Korea? (Score:3, Insightful)
A few years ago N Korea detonated a gigantic explosion that it claimed was nuclear (fission). Now it's claiming controlled fusion.
These claims are impossible to believe, since N Korea lies about so much. But it did demonstrate a gigantic explosion. What in fact is going on there in N Korea?
Someone should show them (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Fusion isn't hard. (Score:2, Insightful)
pictures of it in action: http://www.emc2fusion.org/ [emc2fusion.org]
It will be interesting what there results are next year when its completed in April 2011.
Re:Fusion isn't hard. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Fusion isn't hard. (Score:3, Insightful)
“Useless energy” is best illustrated by what you just expended by typing that rant.
Re:Thermo Nuclear Device (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually... [nhlbisupport.com]
Re:Thus the star over Bethlehem then (Score:4, Insightful)
Why did God make the half-lives of U-238 and U-235 just so?
a note to north korea (Score:2, Insightful)
Dear North Korea
please invest your time an energy in this new science but don't take any safety precautions, because hopefully you will destroy yoursleves and in the process set of a elctromagnetic pulse that will fry your electronics in all, please continue so we can watch you destroy yourselves, and give a reason for us to destroy your. making you a threat to the world giving everyone a reason to blow you to kingdom come.
yours sincerely,
Game Crusader
Re:In related news (Score:2, Insightful)
Is this it, or related? I just googled the first sentence of your post.
http://newledger.com/2009/10/fascism-stalinism-and-north-koreas-destiny/ [newledger.com]