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.
Already done (Score:2, Interesting)
What if.. (Score:5, Interesting)
For some reason I can't help but think that it would be hilarious and kind of scary if everyone chuckles a bit at this and in a couple of months news reports come in saying that for some strange reason the long-running North Korean energy crisis seems to have been solved...
Re:Don't Discriminate! (Score:3, Interesting)
Star at birth (Score:5, Interesting)
In ancient Greece and Rome, it wasn't unusual for someone to claim either that a new star appeared in the sky to herald a great person's birth or that they became a star following their death. This latter claim is known as catasterism and was pretty popular from the time of the Hellenistic kings to the Julio-Claudian dynasty at Rome.
Catasterism is a frequent subject on coin portraits, with a star positioned about the portrait of the ruler. There is a very famous series of coins depicting Augustus fastening a star above the head of Marcellus, the man he had hoped would succeed him.
Of course the import of all of this is that, as with so much else, North Korea is about 2,000 years behind the times.
Re:Fusion isn't hard. (Score:5, Interesting)
it just takes a fission to get the fuse lit...
Not even. Read the GP's wiki link for a description of a "Farnsworth fusor" (not the Farnsworth you're thinking of, but rather his namesake). Making fusion reactions occur is trivially easy, to the point where there exists at least one hobbyist who's made a fusor in his basement. Betcha that's what NK has built, and the claim of it being a "unique thermo-nuclear reaction device" was likely tacked on by some lackey in the propaganda department. Again, old news in the fusion world, as fusors aren't useful for much other than proof of concept.
Getting a net gain in energy with a fusion reaction? Hard. The only way we've done it to date is in a thermonuclear warhead, and I guarantee Pyongyang doesn't have one of those yet, since they've had enough trouble getting basic fission bombs built.
Re:Don't Discriminate! (Score:2, Interesting)
technically, Saturn is *never* on this side of Saturn.
Re:Fusion isn't hard. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Fusion isn't hard. (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, that's also possible [wikipedia.org]. In theory [wikipedia.org], it could even be done without a fission primary.
Now, doing it in a controlled and sustained way, that's a bit more difficult [wikipedia.org].
Re:Thus the star over Bethlehem then (Score:5, Interesting)
I know this is going to offend some people, but since most of the mythology around Jesus Christ is already borrowed from other mythological traditions, I expect that this is the origin of the Star of Bethlehem that is supposed to have appeared over Joshua Bar Joseph's birthplace when he was born. It would make sense for early Christians to have borrowed this story as well if it would help make their religion more popular with the Romano-Graecian population in the near east.
Re:Fusion isn't hard. (Score:3, Interesting)
I was going to say, why is everyone laughing this off? It's very unlikely to be true. But we seem to be laughing at it because "our scientists are obviously better than their scientists."
Yes, it's probably BS. But it isn't BS until it is disproven. And yes, there isn't anything there to disprove right now. And sure, we haven't been able to achieve net positive fusion yet. Net negative fusion is pretty easy. I wouldn't expect useful fusion to be achieved by the old methods. I would expect it to come from unexpected approaches. And honestly, I would expect unexpected approaches from China, Brazil, North Korea, Russia, or somewhere that has less to lose by the untraditional, and who has the need to improvise around a lack of equipment. That doesn't mean it's likely to succeed.
I don't know. Just because it's probably BS doesn't mean it deserves derision and dismissal. Is there a term for "nation-ism"? "part-of-the-world-ism"?
'unique thermo-nuclear reaction device.' (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:"offend some people." Ya think? (Score:5, Interesting)
I’m a Christian, and I wasn’t offended.
I think he’s incorrect, but I’m not offended by his theory.
Re:Fusion is easy. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Thus the star over Bethlehem then (Score:3, Interesting)
I thought you were joking about god deliberately putting the star there for the benefit of the pagan astrologers. Sorry.
Re:Fusion is easy. (Score:3, Interesting)
that's actually not that difficult at all. Hydrogen bombs are uncontrolled fusion in action. Now, producing usable energy, however...
Well, according to the BBC article it says they build a "unique thermo-nuclear reaction device". Technically, NK could be referring to a hydrogen bomb.
Re:In related news (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, I read an interview of a British researcher that has been studying North Korea for decades and has been there several times. He says that North Korea is actually a fascist country. Their system is based on an almost religious cult for the Dear Leader and racist belief in the superiority of the Korean race. Communism is only in outgoing propaganda. They carefully craft some propaganda in Korean only for their own use, and a different one in English to show to the world.
I wish I could post a link to the interview, I can't remember it. Very interesting, it made my chin fall a few times.
Re:Fusion is easy. (Score:4, Interesting)
I've got my own fusion reactor. I recover energy from it with photovoltaic cells on the top of my house.