N.Korea boasts success in nuclear fusion

Pyongyang says its latest scientific breakthrough coincides with the birthday of the country's founder, and eternal president Kim Il-sung - not the first time it seems that the laws of nature have been bent in his honour.

It's not real science if it's just hearsay. Shared the information and let others duplicate it. The containment of a sustained nulear fusion reaction is a highly complicated problem that I KNOW a backward society such as the DPRK can achieve. No way possible. It just can't happen.

It's a real shame that the people of North Korea revers this "shorty" dictator Kim dude as a god or some deity.

Like I said, until their evidence can be shared with the worlds scientist's, it's all "balogna."

BTW, the above quote came from BBC News.

Don’t know if they did or didn’t, they claim…

Sinmun, the newspaper of Pyongyang's ruling communist party, said the North's experts had developed nuclear fusion using a "Korean-style" thermonuclear device. The successful nuclear fusion marks a great event that demonstrated the rapidly developing cutting-edge science and technology of the DPRK (North Korea).

“We” say it’s highly unlikely.

Under fusion, a huge jolt of heat, to nearly 100 million deg C (180 million deg F) would kickstart the process, fusing atomic nuclei and containing them in a charged gas called a plasma.

Getting the process started is only one problem. Another is how to how to sustain it and contain the plasma so that the cloud of particles do not escape.

Then there is the big energy equation -- the cost in energy it takes to pump up the plasma to such high temperatures in comparison with the yield this brings.

Not to mention…

A European-led initiative is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), located Cadarache, southern France, scheduled to start plasma experiments in 2018 and if successful lead to a commercial reactor in the 2030s. The backers in the 10-billion-euro scheme are the European Union (EU), which has a 45-percent share, China, India, South Korea, Japan and Russia as well as the United States. The idea is to have fusion in a reactor fuelled by two isotopes of hydrogen -- deuterium and tritium -- with helium as the waste product in addition to the energy. The plasma would be contained in a magnetic field in a doughnut-shaped vessel called a tokamak. Looking at the key issue of fusion ignition, the United States has built the world's largest laser, a 3.5-billion-dollar behemoth covering the size of two football pitches, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The idea is for 192 laser beams to zap fuel tiny pellets of beryllium, plastic or high-density carton, so compressing the fuel that temperatures of 111 million C (200 million F) are briefly reached. Tested for the first time in January, the lasers fire 40 times more power than the average consumption of the entire planet, albeit for only a few nanoseconds.

www.physorg.com...

It appears, though, that NK may not be as bad off as one might expect.

The North Korean economy is completely nationalized, which means that food rations, housing, healthcare, and education is offered from the state for free. The payment of taxes has been abolished since April 1, 1974. In order to increase productivity from agriculture and industry, since the 1960s the North Korean government has introduced a number of management systems such as the Taean work system. In the 21st century, North Korea's GDP growth has been slow but steady, although in recent years, growth has gradually accelerated to 3.7% in 2008, the fastest pace in almost a decade, largely due to a sharp growth of 8.2% in the agricultural sector.

In 2005, NK was ranked by the FAO as an estimated 10th in the production of fresh fruit and as an estimated 19th in the production of apples. It has substantial natural resources and is the world's 18th largest producer of iron and zinc, having the 22nd largest coal reserves in the world. It is also the 15th largest fluorite producer and 12th largest producer of copper and salt in Asia. Other major natural resources in production include lead, tungsten, graphite, magnesite, gold, pyrites, fluorspar, and hydropower.
en.wikipedia.org...

Guess we’ll all find out soon enough if they’re capable. Can anyone here say what a “Korean-style” nuclear device is? Would it be along the lines of what “we” say it must be? I for one don’t care who comes up with this type of energy, it can’t come soon enough and hopefully whoever does create it, will share it with all.

Peace

They may have succeded in fusion, as atomic bombs are fusion.

The thing is, if you have nuclear technology under a ruthless dictatorship, like North Korea. I imagine the korean scientists are pushed very hard to come up with new technologies using this Nuclear technology.

Unlike here in the west, if koreans lose a few scientists in the process and pollute their lands it will go unnoticed as its all for the good of the nation.

Originally posted by ickylevel
They may have succeded in fusion, as atomic bombs are fusion.

Older atom bombs were fission, then hydrogen bombs came around with fusion detonation processes.

After reading most responses to this thread, I am still convinced society is as ignorant as ever. Do you people really believe that new technology can ONLY be developed by American energy corporations? I'd rather trust the East with developing new technology considering they invest heavily in what they need to be more efficient while the West only invests in large and flashy megaprojects that usually end up being a big complex waste of money (usually ending up in the pockets on project leaders).

You tell me who is more corrupt with energy/weapons technology; North Korea which is a pure military state (4th most effective military in the world) or the US which develops technology by dangling massive contracts infront of developers, discriminating only between which developer is more cost-effective rather than who has more potential for success.

reply to post by D.E.M.


SPACESHIP ONE......

reply to post by MR BOB


Is not made out of tin cans, and cost more than $25M in R&D.

reply to post by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi


I have to agree with you, the reason that the they could do it for cheaper is an easy one.

That $100B that the US is using, well im sure that about 25% goes towards backhands, white collar crime and so on, then another 25% will go towards big bonuses and fat paychecks, then another 25% advertising and massive extravagant parties to spread the word about what they doing, then another 24% will go towards luxury offices and cars that these people need to do their job and finally 1% will go towards building the actual laser

Fine I might be off completely but you get the point about were the majority of the money goes to....

Here are to more examples of same sorta thing

1) Problem - Writing in space

USA - Spends millions on developing a pen that can write in space
Russia - Used a pencil that cost less than a dollar

2) Leaver in helicopter can be hit by bird at speed pushing it back wrong way

USA - Spends millions designing a leaver for a helicopter that gets pushed instead of pulled
South Africa - Puts a thick metal mesh in front of leaver to prevent this, cost them a few dollars

3) Ohhh this one is the best nuclear fusion
USA - SPENDS BILLIONS
N.Korea - Well you get the point by now


[edit on 13-5-2010 by bluedrake]

Previous poster is spot on.
The West want the sheeple to believe that it costs billions for something that is worth far less, out of greed of course.

Example:
small engineering project.
The USA will employ let's say a 50 people for a month, working for 10k a month, 5 days a week, 7 hours a day under a relaxed environment.

NK will employ 20 people, for 100usd a month, 6 days a week, 10 hours a day and under constant pressure.

For the same result, just counting salaries
US: half a million
NK: 2000

Now assuming that the know-how and material needed to master nuclear fusion is available to NK. I believe they can easily afford to beat the west.
And why would NK lie so blatantly? I am sure the Chinese-Russian intel can quickly verify such claims.

[edit on 13-5-2010 by TheOracle]

South Korea is also involved at ITER, maybe NK had some spies crossing the border for intel.
But seriously Japan, US, Russia, China ,India, South Korea and the EU together at ITER are still working on serious issues such as an alloy of Wolfram and Graphite or something else to contain the extreme heat from the plasma in the reaction chamber, we'll have to wait for about 2050 for ITER to produce energy, and maybe for the market. Thankfully, the project is in France..[we're a good consumer of France's nuclear energy]...And they say these peasants in NK are capable of making it work?, please.
The only thing i can think of is that it is relatively easy to fuse hydrogen with the heat of a normal fission reaction, as in a bomb and thus not a controlled chain reaction. But dream on with the energy issue. Yet i hope i am wrong.



[edit on 13-5-2010 by Foppezao]